Dreaming Divided
by VioVayo
Summary: In the far, far future humans are divided into two groups. The Creators create the dreams and the Dreamers dream them. Can one befriend a person who has suffered under one's hand? AU, onesided!USUK, Alfred's POV
1. Prologue

Prologue

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><p>Millennia after the tragic end of the planet Earth and the disappearance of the human race, a gigantic metal sphere was floating all alone through space. The last piece of human civilization.<p>

'The Dream'.

A huge computer, a complex machine, a piece of technology so advanced, so complicated, that none of us here in our time could ever even dream to imagine it.

A whole world of its own.

The humans had known about the Earth's destruction already centuries before it happened. They had been prepared.

'The Dream' was a virtual world, programmed to resemble Earth at the time it was built. When then finally the end of the planet came, all of Earth's population was 'uploaded' into 'the Dream'; personalities, memories, everything.

The people of Earth were now living a virtual life, a simulation. They were born virtually, they lived virtually, and they died virtually. It was nearly perfect. Nobody would've noticed that it wasn't real if he or she hadn't known.

But there was a problem. 'The Dream' may have been programmable from the outside, but it was impossible to change anything from within. The world remained unchanging for decades, when suddenly there was a man. He could make things appear, change existing things, make them disappear again…he was called 'Creator' for his unique talent.

But soon the people had to find out that the creator's talent wasn't so unique, after all.

Many individuals were born with the exact same abilities to alter the Dream to their liking.

The people without the talent felt envious towards the Creators. Not only that, but they also felt threatened by their power. So the Dreamers, as they called themselves, started working against them. The people with the talent were soon enslaved by the people without and years of hardship began for the Creators.

Under the Dreamers' rule, the world changed rapidly, until it only barely resembled Earth anymore. A single Dreamer rose to power and claimed the position as sole ruler and king of the Dream as his own.

Now, millennia after the tragic end of the planet Earth and the wipe-out of its civilization, the current king was preparing for his appearance at the grand parade in the capital for a celebration of the Dreamers' rule. Our story starts here…

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><p>AN: Sorry it's so short. The prologue isn't really needed for the plot, but it's important for understanding how this world works. Also, this is my first fanfic on here, so please be nice. Constructive criticism is always welcome. And I hope not to make too many mistakes. English is not my primary language. Thank you for reading, anyway.<p> 


	2. Part 1

Part 1 - Ignorance, Conflict, History

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><p>I stared at the mirror, looking at my reflection. The turquoise, purple and cream coloured suit made me look older than I really was.<p>

I was looking good.

Someone placed the crown on my head, the symbol of my rulership. Now I was ready.

Ready for the festival today. We were celebrating the Dreamers' leadership and the monarchy. I was going to present myself to the people later today.

I tested my royal smile in front of the mirror a few times, then sighed and let my gaze wander to the portrait on the wall. My great, great, great, great grandfather, the first king of the Dream was smiling down at me from the picture. He had been a great man and even though my people undoubtedly loved me, I always wondered if I'd ever be as great a king as he was.

Probably not, but all worries could wait until later, there was a parade waiting for me.

Test-smiling one last time, I turned around and exited the room, followed by someone. When I left the palace, a carriage was already standing ready outside. I got in and pulled aside the curtains in order to be able to look outside and be seen. Only barely I registered someone sitting down beside me, before we started moving.

The capital was flying past us outside. I smiled and waved at the many citizens at the sides of the road. Somewhere in front of our carriage music was playing loudly and some people were even singing along to the songs played. All in all, it was a very joyous atmosphere.

We were nearing the city centre now. It was getting more crowded around us by the minute. Soon the carriage stopped and the person beside me quickly got out. The door was opened for me and I followed suit.

Everything abruptly quieted down. The music stopped and the people bowed their heads, not daring to look their king directly into the eyes. Flanked by two guards, Matthew, my brother, who had been travelling in another carriage, and some other person, I strode over to the stage-like construction in the centre of the place.

I stepped onto the platform and turned to face the people, MY people, and hold my speech. I had memorized it well over the past few weeks. My brother and the other person came to stand at my side.

"Citizens of the Dream, Dreamers and Creators, we are gathered here today to celebrate the deeds of a great man. Thousand years ago a Dreamer stood right here where I am standing now. He united all Dreamers, brought order and perfection to this world and drove us forward. His name was Frederick Jones."

I paused and looked over the crowds. I could see all the people from my elevated position on the platform. Everyone was waiting for me to continue.

"Today we want to honour this great king's achievements, for the Dream wouldn't be the way it is today, if it hadn't been for him. We-"

"Oh my god, they've got weapons!"

A shrill scream, a woman's, judging by the voice, suddenly filled the area. The people looked up and around in sudden panic and I myself felt fear rising from the pit of my stomach, but I remained calm. I let my gaze wander over the crowd in search of something out of the ordinary, but apart from the panicking citizens, I saw nothing.

The next few moments were a blur of silver and green. Everything happened in the blink of an eye, but to me it somehow felt like years. Metal was whizzing through the air, there were shocked screams and my brother's weight pressed against me, pulling me to the ground and someone, THE Someone, standing in front of me like a shield, messy golden hair, glowing green eyes, grit teeth and suddenly everything froze.

No, not just time. Reality froze.

The Dream just momentarily stopped.

All bullets, arrows and throwing knives just suddenly stopped moving and now hung in mid-air as if the laws of gravity wouldn't apply.

The man, still protectively standing before me, was now panting in exhaustion. He let his arms, which he had stretched out to the sides, drop and in that same motion, almost as if somebody had switched gravity back on, the flying objects fell down.

He turned around and looked at me with those glowing green eyes. That's when I noticed that I knew him. He was the Someone who had accompanied me all day. The Someone who had been following me all year.

The Someone who had been at my side ever since I was a mere five-year old.

How could I not have noticed him before?

I tried to withstand the venomous green stare directed at me, but then everything started spinning. The panicked voices of my people faded into nothing and the last thing I could remember before I lost consciousness were those green, green eyes.

When I woke up again, I was lying on my bed in the palace. My brother was sitting beside me and the green-eyed man stood in a corner of the room. I sat up.

"What happened?"

Matthew was the one who answered.

"There was an attack at the festival. Somebody wanted to kill you. Luckily, this Creator here was there to save you."

He gestured to the blonde man.

"You…saved my life. Uh…thank you."

The man just nodded in response.

"Um, I think I forgot your name…Sorry."

He looked at me coldly, then sighed.

"My name is Arthur Kirkland, Creator at your service, your majesty."

He turned to me and bowed. I blinked. Arthur Kirkland – I remembered that name. He was a birthday present from my mother when I was a kid. He had been mine ever since. The fact that I hadn't noticed him until recent events was making me kind of uncomfortable in his presence.

"Cut the formalities, Arthur. I owe you my life. You don't have to bow to me."

Just be kind, get on a first-name-basis and everyone is your friend, right? Right. Arthur, however, didn't seem to share that thought.

He appeared to be a little surprised when I said what I said, but the only reaction I got out of him was a curt nod and a frown. He looked off to the side again.

My brother watched the two of us for a moment, before he decided to speak again.

"Isn't it strange, though? I mean, whatever it was the Creator did, theoretically it shouldn't have been possible."

I nodded. He was right there, it was rather strange. I didn't know a lot about Creators and their abilities, my brother was the expert there, but as king I had to know at least the basics and that included the knowledge that creators had no power over the laws of physics, such as gravity.

But I wasn't going to complain.

It saved my life, after all.

Matthew was sceptical.

"Hey,…Arthur was it? What exactly did you do there?"

Even though he tried to hide it, I could see that Arthur looked uncomfortable. Maybe he just wasn't used to so much attention? Who knows…

"I don't…know what you're talking about."

Bad lie. Very obvious, too.

My brother raised an eyebrow at that.

"You don't know or you don't want to tell us?"

The Creator didn't answer and my brother was getting impatient.

"I order you to tell us how you did that!"

"Mattie, stop!"

I hadn't even noticed I had said something until Matthew turned his disbelieving stare on me. Arthur looked shocked at my outbreak. I continued.

"Can't you see he's uncomfortable with the subject? Leave him alone! Besides, last time I checked he was mine, not yours! And I say he doesn't have to tell us anything he doesn't want to!"

"Are you an idiot? If creators really are able to control natural laws, we could be in great danger! What do you think comes next, huh?"

I was getting really angry now!

"What's wrong with you? This man saved my life! Show at least a little gratitude! Normally you're always so soft-spoken and kind. Why are you suddenly so…different?"

He stood up and looked down at me.

You don't understand, Al! I've been working with Creators for little over seven years now! They are dangerous. If they found a way to meddle with physics, the next thing they'll learn is how to manipulate other people!"

This was getting ridiculous.

"That's impossible!"

"We thought that about gravity, too, didn't we?"

Matthew glared at me, his indigo eyes sparkling dangerously. I glared back. His words were true, but that didn't give him any right to treat Arthur like that.

Ah, yes, Arthur was here, too. I nearly forgot that.

The Creator sighed and spoke, startling both my brother and me.

"Um…do I receive permission to speak?"

Poor guy. Being ignored all those years and suddenly being the reason for a heated discussion such as this. Great, now I feel like an ass.

"Of course, Arthur. You don't have to ask."

"Well, it is true, normally it is impossible for us Creators to influence the natural laws or other people, but for entirely different reasons. I take it everyone here knows what the Dream really is, so I'll skip the explanations on that part. Now, the laws of physics, the flow of time and other such things are simply locked securely into the system. The people run on a completely different program, which is working together with the main program to create this world. Creators are people with a connection to the main program, so they can only influence that. So even if, and only if we should find a way to work around the security lock, controlling people would still be impossible."

He glared at Matthew for a few moments, the looked away again, mumbling a small apology under his breath.

"So, you're saying that, even though you can now control physics, people are still safe? That's good, right?"

I smiled at Arthur, he glared back at me. It appeared that all he ever did was glare and frown. I silently promised myself to make him smile someday.

"I said even IF we could, but yes, that's right."

"You see, Mattie? There's nothing to worry about."

He didn't look convinced.

"Still, I'd like to look further into this."

"Do what you have to do, but leave Arthur here alone. If he doesn't want to talk, you should respect that."

Matthew huffed and turned away.

"Whatever. I've still got stuff to do and, seeing as you're fine, I'll be taking my leave now."

Without so much as a single glance back, my brother left the room. I looked at Arthur, who was still standing in the corner.

"Don't mind him. Normally he's not like this. I wonder what's wrong with him, though."

"Maybe he simply dislikes me?"

"Nah, that's not it. He doesn't even know you."

Okay, I didn't either. Yet.

"May I speak freely?"

He looked at me with those glowing green eyes and I nodded.

"You are far too naïve, your majesty. This world is not perfect, nor are it's people. You would do good to finally see that."

"What do you mean? Sure, nothing's perfect, but I don't really get what you're trying to say."

I didn't understand. Sadly, he didn't really feel like enlightening me.

"I meant exactly what I said."

With that, he turned away again. I just shrugged. Damn, his eyes were beautiful! He had been mine all along and I hadn't even noticed. What a shame, really…wait, where the heck did that thought just come from?

There was a knock on the door and a servant – another Creator, judging by the simple clothing he wore, entered the room. He passed Arthur a fleeting glance and then spoke to me. "Your majesty, a certain Lord Zwingli wants to speak with you. He says it's urgent."

"Okay, let him in."

I couldn't care less about how I looked right now. There were so many things on my mind. Besides, after having fainted in public, how much worse could it be to speak to somebody while sitting in bed?

The servant nodded at me and bowed, then glared at Arthur, who glared back, before he left. Another man came in, a blonde with green eyes just like Arthur's, but they lacked the vibrant glow that made the Creator's eyes so unique.

The man bowed and introduced himself.

"My name is Vash Zwingli, master of arms and combat. It is an honour to meet you, your majesty."

"The honour is all mine, Lord Zwingli. Please, have a seat."

I gestured to one of the chairs in the room.

"I've been told you had to discuss something important."

The man nodded.

"Yes, it concerns the happenings at the parade earlier today."

He sat down on a chair beside my bed, looking a little grumpy.

"I had been put in charge of security for the event. I don't know what went wrong, my men checked everything and everyone. You must tell me exactly what you saw."

I thought about it for a moment. I hadn't really seen anything. There was just the scream, the panic and then…

"I'm sorry, but I saw nothing. It all happened too fast. But there is a person who I think saw the attackers. She was the one who noticed the attack first and started the whole panic thing. I don't know what she looks like or where to find her, though. There were too many people there, I only heard her."

"So we just have to question every woman in the capital?"

"I apologize, but that is everything I can give you."

He sighed.

"It's okay, I'll just have to make do with what little information I have. I still have one other question, though. If you don't mind me asking, of course."

"No, no, go on."

He looked me in the eyes again. His eyes were so much like Arthur's, but not even half as captivating. Wow, Arthur's eyes really got me, huh?

"Do you suspect anyone? Anybody who wouldn't want you on the throne? Somebody who you could've angered in the past, perhaps?"

I shook my head. There was nothing I could remember doing that would make anybody hate me, much less want me dead. Which made me wonder. Why would anybody try to kill me? My people loved me! At least I thought so.

"Is there anyone YOU suspect, Lord Zwingli?"

Vash looked thoughtful for a moment.

"If I had to guess…I'd say the Creators are most likely to be responsible."

Arthur suddenly had a coughing fit and Vash sent him a disapproving stare.

"Why would they have anything to do with it? It was a Creator who saved me, after all."

The Lord looked at me in disbelief. He leant back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"What do you know about Creators and their history?"

"Uh…"

I tried to remember what my teachers had told me about the past back when I was still little prince Alfred. Damn, why couldn't he have asked Matthew instead? I never had anything to do with Creators, so my knowledge there wasn't all that great. All I ever did was take care of Dreamers' problems. Kingdom issues, you know? BIG things.

"…they are people who can influence the Dream, not including natural laws and other people. That's impossible. And they use their abilities to help the society. Now, what else is there…"

Going with definitions was always the best option. At least I knew WHAT a Creator was. Lord Zwingli didn't seem impressed.

He sighed again and looked at me with those green eyes that looked so much like Arthur's, but at the same time totally different.

"I think it is time for a little history lesson."

In the next few minutes I became part of a world I never thought concerned me before. Oh, how wrong I had been.

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><p>AN: Chapter one, yay! Seven frickin' handwritten pages! Ugh…<p>

There are still some things I'm currently working on concerning the plot, but I've already got the main parts planned out. I just hope I won't ruin it with my writing style; I tend to either rush things or make them too long and boring.

Oh well, part of getting better is making mistakes, right? Right.


	3. Part 2

Part 2 – Speeches, Dreams, Secrets

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><p>I was having kind of a déjà-vu experience. I was standing in front of a mirror, getting dressed for a public appearance, just like two days before. But this time I actually noticed who helped me change into my formal attire.<p>

Arthur was standing behind me, carefully picking and handing me the clothes I was to wear.

I tried to strike up a conversation.

"Hey, Arthur, What do you think about this whole situation?"

The Creator wrapped a white sash around my body and fastened it at the shoulder piece of my coat. He didn't look up when he spoke.

"If you are referring to the speech you are about to hold, your majesty, I think it is very much needed to calm the people down. The citizens have all been nervously awaiting word from their king since the event on Sunday."

I nodded, understanding what he meant.

"By the way, who do you think was responsible for the attack, anyway?"

Arthur momentarily tensed up, then continued his work, correcting the position of the ruffles on my sleeves.

"I…don't think my opinion is of any importance."

He pinned the gold and silver Dream Symbol to the front of my coat, right where my heart lay and stepped back, so that I could look at myself in the mirror.

"I think it's important. That Vash guy said some pretty evil things about you Creators and I don't know whether to believe them or not. You ARE a Creator. You must know, right?"

He sighed and placed the crown on my head.

"Whatever Lord Zwingli said is true, is true."

"Oh come on, Arthur! Are you telling me that all Creators are evil, power-hungry monsters? I'm having a hard time believing that."

He took another few steps back and bowed his head.

"…I think you should go now, your majesty. It is almost time for your speech."

I frowned at him, but didn't say anything, as the two of us went outside. Why didn't he want to tell me what he thought? Here I was, willing to listen to his side of the story, and he just kept to himself. Maybe he didn't trust me?

I'd have to change that.

We stepped out onto the balcony, from where I was going to hold my speech today. Many citizens were already gathered below for the occasion. Their exited chatter quickly quieted down when they saw me.

I cleared my throat and spoke.

"Dear citizens of the Dream, Dreamers and Creators! I take it you all know of the incident two days ago."

The citizens nodded and gave small noises in the positive. I noticed Arthur standing closely beside me, carefully watching my people.

"There are a couple of things I want to say. First of all, there is no reason to panic. Lord Vash Zwingli has made it his personal mission to find out who was behind the attack on Sunday. Second, he and his men are going to go around, asking everyone a few questions. I ask you to tell him all you know, even if it seems unimportant."

I took a deep breath. So far, so good.

"Furthermore, starting today, all Creators are forbidden to walk the streets at night and, unless accompanied by at least one Dreamer, also at day."

I hadn't wanted that last part, but my brother had insisted. He, too, thought that the Creators were behind the attack and said it would be safer that way.

The crowd reacted surprisingly accepting towards the new rule. Nobody complained or commented. I swallowed nervously.

"That'd be all."

I nodded at my people, then turned around, going inside again. Arthur followed closely. Behind us the citizens started talking excitedly amongst themselves again.

Back inside the palace, Matthew was already waiting for me in my room. He looked up at me, as he noticed me entering.

"Back already?"

He took out a golden pocked watch, threw a glance at it and put it away again.

"That was hardly even two minutes. You call that a speech?"

"Well, yeah. I only had to days to prepare, instead of several months, like I usually have."

My brother nodded.

"That is understandable, then. By the way, I've started questioning the Creators about their abilities concerning physics."

"And?"

"Nothing, so far. They are all telling me that manipulating natural laws is completely and utterly impossible, even though we have seen that the opposite is the case."

I just shrugged.

"Well then, I guess, there is nothing we can do."

"Not quite."

Matthew's gaze wandered over to Arthur.

"Seeing as this is a matter of kingdom security, I am not opposed to the idea of using violence to get the information we need."

Arthur and I both flinched upon hearing those words. What in the world had gotten into my brother? He had been acting so strange ever since the incident.

"You're kidding, right? Tell me you don't mean that!"

"No, I'm serious! Clearly, they are hiding something from us. Something important, something dangerous."

"Still, this doesn't have to result in violence."

I stepped between Matthew and Arthur, as if I was trying to shield the Creator from something.

"In case you haven't noticed, Alfred, your life is at stake here. The Creators have both the motive and the means necessary for an attack like the one two days ago. I'm sure you think that an assassination attempt is no big deal, but it is."

"Damnit, I know it's a big deal! But violence can't possibly be the only option we have! What the hell is wrong with you, anyway? I'm sick of this new you, I want my brother back!"

Oh no, I hadn't meant for it to come out like that. Matthew appeared shocked at first, then angry and then just sad. I just wanted to take my words back, but my brother's cold voice stopped all sounds from leaving my mouth.

"Is that so? Well, I'm sick of your ignorance."

And with that, he just left, without giving me a chance to apologize or explain myself.

The rest of the day went by fairly normally. I had to sign a lot of papers, some of which I had already forgotten the content of halfway through, because they were so painfully unimportant.

Seriously, ruling the world is no fun at all! All one has to do is put one's signature under everything and nothing. Boring, if you ask me. Unless one's hobby is signing stuff. But that'd be weird.

Ahem.

Anyway, like I said, the rest of the day was rather uneventful. It was already starting to get dark outside when I finished all of my paperwork and I decided to go to bed. I had been under much stress lately - nearly being killed does that to people – and going to bed early had become kind of a habit.

It didn't take me long to get dressed into my nightclothes. I hopped into my bed, bouncing on the soft mattress for a few moments. After a while, I just sank back into the pillows, sighing in bliss. So much had happened over the last few days, it was making my head spin just thinking about it all.

There seemed to be much more to the Creators than just some abilities the average Dreamer didn't have. Maybe I should go to the library and read a book or two on Creator history. And then there was Arthur, whom I had totally ignored for 14 years, even though he had been right by my side the entire time.

Speaking of Arthur, where was he now, anyway? I was sure he had been around just a moment ago.

"Arthur?"

"Yes, your majesty?"

The voice came from beside my bed. I looked there and saw the Creator lying on the ground, staring up at me with those glowing, green eyes of his, his eyebrows drawn together.

"What are you doing down there?"

"Trying to sleep, maybe?"

"On the ground?"

He huffed and looked away, a habit of his, it seemed.

"Where else?"

"In a bed, of course! Why would you sleep on the ground, anyway?"

"Maybe because I don't have a bed?"

It was more of a statement, not a question and I didn't know what to say to that. He didn't even have a bed? Poor guy. Maybe if I had noticed him sooner I could've done something about that. Great, now I felt bad again. Oh well, better late than never, right?

"Your majesty, if there's nothing you need me for, I'd like to go to sleep now."

"…of course, go ahead."

He closed his eyes and shifted a little to get more comfortable. I just watched him lay there for a few minutes.

"Arthur?"

His eyes opened again and he sighed.

"Yes?"

"Isn't that uncomfortable? You know, sleeping on the ground like that?"

"You get used to it after a while. Now please let me sleep."

I wondered. How long was 'a while', exactly? Sighing to myself, I shifted a little on the bed, making way for a second person to fit in, then patted the now empty space beside me.

"Come up here, the bed is big enough for two."

He sat up straight and looked at me, wide-eyed.

"Uh…I'm not so sure that that is…such a wise idea, your majesty."

"What? Why is that?"

Seriously, I was offering him a comfortable, soft and warm bed and he chose the floor instead? What a strange attitude.

"Because it's Tuesday, um, no, I mean…"

"What kind of reason is that? Just come up here already!"

Arthur sighed, but did as he was told and climbed up into the bed. He quickly slipped under the covers, mumbling a small good night and closed his eyes. I did the same.

That night I had a strange dream.

I was a kid again, six years old or so. Arthur was there, too. He was also much younger; he looked around the age of twelve.

We were in the palace, in the kitchen, to be precise, and he was pouring me a glass of orange juice.

"Arthur?"

"Yes?"

He looked at me. Oh god, this Arthur's eyes were an even more vibrant shade of green than the older Arthur's. I never thought that'd be possible…

"Tell me a story, Arthur!"

He smiled and handed me the glass, which I took.

"Which one would you want to hear, Alfred?

Alfred? He had called me by my first name when we were little? Or maybe this wasn't a memory, just some random dream…

"The one about the moon people."

Moon people? I didn't understand. No wait, I think…

"The one about the Creators? Don't you think this is too sad a story to be told at times like this? Today is your mother's birthday, after all."

"But I want to hear it!"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, smiling. I knew it! He could smile!

"Very well."

Just as he began to talk, everything went blurry and the scene suddenly changed. Now I was my normal self again. This time I wasn't part of the dream, I was just watching from the outside.

My father stood before a twelve-year-old Arthur, holding a long, black metal rod with a blue-glowing tip. He said something, but I couldn't understand it. It was as if I was listening from underwater.

Arthur just looked off to the side, like he always did. My father seemed angry. He closed his hand around the Creator's throat and pushed him up against the nearest wall, yelling something. Arthur tried to force out words, but he had quite some difficulties with that due to the other's grip on his neck. My father said something again and, even though I couldn't understand the words, I knew it was a threat.

He turned Arthur around, so that he faced the wall and lifted the metal rod, pointing the blue-glowing tip at him. He then placed the tip right between Arthur's shoulder blades.

Arthur screamed. The sound was so crystal clear, I felt like my brain was going to explode. But I couldn't cover my ears, nor could I look away. The only thing I could do was watch and listen.

Luckily, due to SOMETHING, I was soon pulled out of the dream and back into awakeness. I opened my eyes and was met with the sight of Arthur changing back into his regular day clothes. He hadn't yet noticed me waking up. What was he doing? I was just about to ask, but he was already out of the door.

Curiosity piqued, I decided to follow him. I got up and put on a simple shirt and some trousers, then went after him.

I wondered if I should make myself heard. Nah, whatever was going on, he didn't look like he wanted anyone to know. If I wanted to find out what was going on, I had to follow quietly, without him noticing.

After what felt like hours, even though it couldn't have been more than just a few minutes, of sneaking through hallways and hiding behind corners, we arrived in the kitchen. Arthur quietly opened the window there and climbed outside into the palace gardens. The kitchen was on ground level, so it was easy to get onto the other side of the window.

The night had turned the gardens into a complicated maze of bushes, trees and flowers. I had to be careful not to lose Arthur. He seemed to have gotten more cautious ever since we left the palace. He always turned around to see if he was being followed. Luckily, there was always a bush around to hide in before he could spot me.

We had been outside for about five minutes, although it felt like it was longer, when I heard the sound of nearing footsteps. I jumped into the nearest bush, hiding myself from anyone who could be there. Arthur had obviously also heard the sound. He looked around for a place to hide as well, but wasn't fast enough.

Two uniformed men, I recognized them as guards, came walking down a stone path, the flashlight one of them was holding bathing the surroundings in cold, white light.

As soon as the men saw Arthur, he took off running. They immediately ran after him. I stayed in my cover until they had passed, then silently followed them, sticking to the shadows of the various plants in the gardens.

When I finally caught up with them again, I saw how the two guards were trying to drag Arthur back to the palace. He struggled, but couldn't get free. It looked kind of painful, –definitely uncomfortable, - but I couldn't blame the men. They were just doing their job as guards and Creators weren't allowed outside at night.

Still, I didn't want them to treat Arthur like that.

I stepped out of the shadows and approached them.

"Leave him alone, he's with me."

The guards turned around and looked at me in surprise, then dropped to their knees upon recognizing me.

"Your majesty! We didn't know…"

"We thought this Creator here shouldn't be out at this hour. We didn't know he was yours, your majesty. Please accept our sincerest apologies."

I smiled. Being the ruler of the world did have its upsides.

"It's okay, you were just doing your job. It is good to see that the kingdom's safety lies in the hands of such hardworking people."

I looked at Arthur. He looked totally stunned, his green eyes wide with shock and his mouth hanging open. I held out a hand to him.

"Come on, let's go."

He looked reluctant at first, but took the hand without complaining. The two guards looked at each other, then stood up, as I led the Creator away, back to the palace.

While I led him through the gardens, Arthur's expression had turned from shock to indifference, as if he was trying to hide what he truly felt. Everyone always told me how bad I was at reading people, but just because I normally didn't, didn't mean I couldn't. Even though he desperately tried to hide it, I could clearly see. The way he stubbornly kept his eyes on the ground, the way he trembled ever so slightly.

He was scared.

* * *

><p>AN: Yay, more boring, overdramatic chapters. PinkFroop requested less drama with Mattie, but I'm sorry, that's not possible. It's all part of the plot.<p>

By the way, there is a reason young Alfred calls the Creators 'moon people'. It's going to be explained later.

Also, here: violet-hime . deviantart art/ APH-King-of-the-Dream- 29011 4438  
>Isn't it (not) beautiful?<p>

I'm looking forward to the library scene, where Alfred finds out more about the Creators. I think I'm in love with this universe.


	4. Part 3

Part 3 – Confrontation, Conversation, Revelation

* * *

><p>"Where were you going?"<p>

"…somewhere."

I groaned, running a hand through my hair. After the Creator had been caught sneaking away, we had returned to my room. He was now sitting on my bed and I was walking in circles.

"Come on, Arthur! You can tell me!"

"…no."

"But Arthur!"

I stopped walking and looked at him.

"Whoever tried to kill me must still be somewhere outside! What if something had happened!"

He lowered his gaze to the ground.

"I will accept whatever punishment you have for me, but I refuse to talk!"

"What?"

I stared at him, shocked.

"Why would I want to punish you?"

A quiet, unhappy laugh escaped his lips. I didn't like that. Laughing was supposed to be a happy thing.

"I broke the law, maybe?"

Shaking my head, I sat down beside him and spoke calmly.

"Look, this isn't about punishment or law. This is about your safety. If you decide to walk around the streets at night, all alone, god knows what could happen!"

Now it was his time to be shocked. Whatever it was he had expected, it was certainly not this. I patted him on the back reassuringly and managed a small smile.

"Now let's start again, okay? You don't have to answer my questions if you don't want to, but I'd be happy if you did."

He nodded very slowly, as if he wasn't sure about this at all.

"So, where were you going?"

"Just somewhere, and that is all I'm willing to say."

I raised an eyebrow, but didn't inquire further.

"And what were you going to do…somewhere?"

"…meeting a friend."

He was choosing his words very carefully, as if trying to criticize someone without offending them.

"Ohhhh, are you seeing a girl?"

It was just some harmless teasing, but he wasn't very amused and looked at me with a blank expression on his face.

"No, it's just an old friend."

"Okay then, when you sneak out next time, take me with you! I'd like to meet that friend of yours."

"I'd rather you wouldn't"

Arthur glared at me, but I could see the corners of his mouth twitching ever so slightly, as if he was suppressing a smile. I was still far away from getting him to smile for real, but at least it was something.

A yawn escaped me and I let myself fall over, so that I was now lying on my back, staring up at the light blue, white and golden ceiling. Arthur carefully settled down beside me.

"We should get some sleep. It is almost morning again. And I've got so much to do tomorrow. I mean today. Gah, who cares!"

Sighing dramatically, I turned around and buried my nose in a pile of pillows.

"Your majesty…what about your clothes?"

I just groaned in response. Seriously, I was beyond caring right now. The last few hours had been more tiring than I had expected and everything I wanted to do now was sleep.

After a moment he sighed and dropped the subject. There was no point in arguing with me about this and he knew it. I turned over to face him and wrapped my arms around his slender for, causing him to look at me questioningly.

"To make sure you don't run away without me."

I thought I saw a flicker of panic in his eyes when I said that, but when I looked more closely, it was gone again. I could've been mistaken, it was pretty dark, after all.

We said our good nights and I drifted off to sleep again. I had no other dreams that night.

When I woke up again, it was already past midday. Arthur still lay in my arms, but he was awake and struggling against my grip, trying to get free. I let him and he quickly jumped out of the bed, before he started to get dressed.

"Why the rush?"

"Your majesty, do you know what time it is?"

I yawned and stretched, still lying down.

"Twelve-something. Why?"

He slipped into a new shirt and glared at me.

"Your brother, prince Matthew, has come here, requesting you wake up. Twice. That was two hours ago."

I thought he mumbled something about humiliation, but I wasn't sure. Grudgingly, I detached myself from the covers and ran a hand through my messy hair.

"Mattie? Did he need me for something specific?"

"Not that I know. Still, I think that you really should be getting up now."

I let myself fall back onto the pillows, groaning quietly.

"Ugh. Do I have to?"

"Yes. Don't you have several appointments today?"

"Cancel them, then."

I stared at Arthur, he stared back, unamused.

"Your majesty, I must insist. You are getting up right now!"

"Is that a way to speak to your king?"

I instantly regretted saying that, as Arthur quickly took a step away from where I was and bowed his head.

"My sincerest apologies, your majesty. I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay, Artie. I was just joking."

I sat up and smiled at him. He looked at me as if he wasn't quite trusting his ears.

"You can talk to me in whatever way you like. And stop calling me 'your majesty'! My name's Alfred."

"…okay…Alfred."

I nodded at him encouragingly, then got up. Damn, Arthur had been right about not wearing my dayclothes to bed. It would take a great deal of ironing to get those wrinkles out! But it was too late now, anyway, so I just tossed the old shirt into a corner somewhere and put on a new one.

"You know what? I'm still going to cancel or move all of my appointments. There's something I want to do and it'll probably take the whole day."

The Creator looked curious, but didn't ask any questions. He just handed me my cream-coloured coat, which I quickly slipped on.

"Um…I suggest we go pay the prince s visit, first."

I sighed, but nodded. I really didn't have any desire to talk to my brother at this moment, our last fight still fresh in my memory, but Arthur was right. Matthew was the one who had wanted me awake in the first place.

"Okay, let's go then."

Followed, by Arthur, I left my room to go searching for wherever my brother was. He was probably sitting somewhere behind a desk, doing some work. Come to think of it, he usually did his work in the library, because nobody disturbed him there. Oh well, I wanted to go to the library anyway, so that was just fine.

It didn't take us too long to find the right door. We didn't have to sneak through the palace this time. I carefully opened it. It was quiet on the other side.

Okay, that was to be expected. It WAS a library, after all.

I stepped in and looked around. The room had nothing except for a couple of tables and chairs, a great amount of shelves and an even greater amount of books. My brother sat at one of the tables, leaning over a stack of paper, pen in hand.

"Matthew?"

He threw a short glance at me, then continued signing his papers.

"Ah, I see. His royal majesty has finally decided to leave the bed and grace us with his presence. How wonderful."

Matthew's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Why, I'm sorry for being tired, but I had a very rough night."

"I know."

He looked at me again, anger shining in his eyes.

"You rather spend your night doing god knows what to that Creator of yours, instead of getting enough sleep for you to get up on time the next day, like you are supposed to!"

"Leave Arthur out of this! He's got nothing to do with it!"

He had, technically. But it was already enough that Matthew was angry at me, he didn't need to be mad at Arthur, as well.

"Oh, has he now? Why was it you were sharing a bed with him this morning, then?"

I was just about to say something, but shut my mouth again. I didn't want to argue with my brother, not again. Sighing in defeat, I looked away.

"Look, I didn't come here to fight with you. I'm sorry, okay? Now, can't we just, you know, forget this? Please."

Matthew seemed to think about it for a moment before he nodded slowly.

"I guess you are right. We should work together, not against each other."

He put down his pen and stood up, walked over to me and held out his hand, which I took. I could tell he hadn't forgiven me yet, but at least he wasn't yelling anymore.

"So, Mattie, was there anything you wanted to see me for? Arthur said you were looking for me."

"Ah, yes. Lord Zwingli said he wished to speak with you and wanted to know when you had time."

He let go of my hand and sat down in front of his work again.

"Can you tell him to come back next week? Or at least tomorrow. I'm kind of busy, you know?"

"Why don't you tell him yourself? He's taking a stroll around the gardens right now, I think."

"Huh?"

I stared at my brother, confused.

"What's he doing here?"

Matthew sent me an unamused glare.

"You agreed to have him stay here until the whole attempted-murder-thing was solved, remember? Maybe you should start reading the things you sign, first."

I smiled nervously. Normally I always read everything. Well, nearly everything. Maybe half or so. Could be less. But that was still enough, right? Yes, of course it was enough. Most stuff was boring and unimportant, anyway. So it was okay. Yep, that's logic.

Arthur was standing in a corner, alone and looking uncomfortable. I turned to face him and he looked up at me, his eyes glowing softly. Right then, I wished I could read minds. I really wanted to know what it was he thought in that moment.

What did he think about me?

I shook my head to clear it from those questions and turned away again, walking over to where my brother sat, still working. I borrowed an empty piece of paper and a pen and quickly wrote down a few sentences.

"Arthur?"

"Yes, your majesty?"

"Would you please go search Vash for me? Tell him I'm free to talk tomorrow."

"But-"

"If anybody tries to stop you, show them this."

I turned around and handed him the piece of paper.

"When you're done you can take the rest of the day off. I need to be alone for a while. Just don't leave the palace grounds and be inside before sunset and you should be fine."

Arthur looked as if he wanted to say something, but didn't. He just turned around and left.

Matthew stood up again and gathered his papers, before snatching the pen from me with a quiet 'thank you'.

"I'm done here for now. There are still some things I need to take care of, though. Should you need me, I'm in my room."

We nodded at each other and he left as well, taking his papers with him.

Now, what was it I had wanted to do again? Ah, yes. Research.

I carefully looked over all the bookshelves, searching for books about Creators. Luckily, they were all sorted by topic in alphabetical order, so I didn't need long to find what I was looking for.

I pulled a thick, dark purple book from the shelf labelled 'C'. The front of the book was decorated with the Creators' symbol; a golden moon, a silver sphere and four blue arrows. I didn't know what that symbol meant, exactly, only that it represented the Creators, but I was sure to find out.

I sat down at one of the tables and opened the book on page one.

'Everything you want to know about Creators, but are too afraid to ask'.

My, that was a long title for a book. Couldn't the author just have called it 'Creators' or something simple like that? I flipped through a few pages, searching for stuff that seemed interesting.

The main part of the book was about history. Great, exactly what I needed. I started reading. A little while and a quarter of the book later, I stopped, frowning. It felt as if something was missing.

Quickly, I reread the last two pages. Yes, there was definitely something missing. I just didn't know what. Sighing, I stood up and walked over to the bookshelves, pulling out a book titled 'A compilation of Dream history'.

I got the exact same result.

It was as if the persons who wrote those books had simply forgotten something. Something important. But what was it?

I checked another book. And another. By the time the sun was beginning to set outside, I had already read everything about Creator history in the whole library. The feeling of missing something never went away.

There was a logical mistake somewhere. I could practically feel it! It was probably hidden in plain sight and when I found it, it would seem totally obvious.

But knowing that didn't make finding what I was looking for any easier.

Groaning in frustration, I grabbed one of the many books on the table and tossed it across the room. It hit the wall with a loud thud, then fell to the floor, presenting one of its totally useless pages to me.

I let my head fall onto the hard, wooden surface in front of me and whined quietly. I wished Arthur was here right now. He looked smart. And in that dream, he-…

Besides, he could do many things that I couldn't.

…

Wait a second.

I instantly sat straight again and felt my lips slowly forming a smile. That was it. The logical error. The missing piece. And it really was obvious, now that I thought about it.

All books said the same things about Creators; that they were war-crazed and violent psychopaths with superpowers that stopped at nothing to get what they wanted. That was basically it, just in very many, carefully picked words.

The Dreamers were always portrayed as the exact opposite; peaceful and friendly and strictly against violence.

And unable to influence the world.

The Creators could do many things that they couldn't.

So how did the so-called peaceful and non-violent resistance stand up to a horde of psychos who literally controlled the world? There was definitely something missing. There had to be! This didn't make any sense at all.

Either that, or the world was really, really weird.

I had to find out what really happened back then. And I knew just the right person to ask.

Quickly, I put all the books back where they belonged, then sprinted out of the library, off to search for Arthur.

It was time for him to tell me a story.

The story about the moon people.

* * *

><p>AN: Do I make any sense? No? Good.<p>

Happy Easter, by the way. It snowed over here.

Look, I drew Matthew. violet-hime .deviantart art/APH- Prince-Matthew- 2948 78911

Ugh, I hated writing this chapter and I want it to die a slow and painful death.


	5. Part 4

Part 4 – We, They, You

* * *

><p>I came across Arthur in one of the hallways.<p>

He was currently busy speaking with another Creator and didn't immediately notice me. I decided to watch the two from around a corner. They seemed to be discussing something important and I was kind of curious.

God damnit, was stalking Arthur my new hobby? It certainly felt like it.

"Yes, I know. But what was I supposed to do?"

That was Arthur speaking. He sounded a little...frustrated? Yes, I think that's it. The other Creator seemed kind of angry.

"How about, I don't know, nothing? Ever since the incident, the Dreamers have been asking questions. They started poking around. It won't be long until they find out about us and it's your fault!"

What was he talking about? Finding out what?

"The king's life was in danger!"

"Yeah, so? Good riddance!"

…I should feel offended.

"Are you implying I should have let him die?"

The Creator Arthur was talking to ran his hand through his long, brown hair and sighed.

"…look, Arthur…it's just that we can't afford to let everyone know about…us. You know what you're actions mean for us, right?"

Us who? Did he talk about the Creators?

"Yes, I am aware. And I am sorry for all the trouble."

Arthur looked down at his feet, not seeming sorry in the slightest.

"I do not regret saving the king, though. He is a…very kind person."

Why was it making me feel all warm and fluttery, hearing that? That was probably the nicest thing I've ever heard him say. Ever.

"I'm sure he'd help us…if he knew."

Uh…yeah, sure I'd help Arthur with…whatever it is he needs help with. That just sounded totally useless for some reason.

The brown-haired Creator raised an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me you've started to like him."

Arthur hesitated.

"…I don't know. No."

…

There went that warm and fluttery feeling.

The man Arthur was talking to threw a quick glance at the wristwatch he was wearing.

"…I better get going. You know how my boss gets when I'm late. Just make sure you're there next Tuesday."

"I will."

With that, the brown-haired man turned around and walked away, leaving Arthur behind. I stepped out of my hiding place and he spun around to face me upon hearing me approach, clearly not expecting to see me here.

"Y-Your majesty!"

"Hey, Arthur. Can I have a word with you?"

For a short moment the Creator looked as if I had just sentenced him to death. He probably thought I wanted to question him about the conversation just now. Maybe I should pretend I didn't know. Listening in on his private conversations made me look like a creep. And nobody liked a creep.

"I was reading some books in the library and found something interesting. I thought maybe you could help me with some questions."

He seemed to relax slightly at that, though he still looked uncomfortable.

"Of course, your majesty."

"Alfred."

"…Alfred."

I smiled. Someday I'd get him to like me. And change that 'I don't know' into a 'yes'.

Arthur followed me into our room. I didn't want to be disturbed while talking to him and that seemed like the most private place right now. We both sat down on the bed and I spoke first.

"So, uh…actually I just wanted to ask you if you knew anything about the rise of the Dreamers. I mean what really happened. I tried reading some books, but the stuff written there just doesn't make any sense at some parts."

The Creator opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again and I thought I saw a flicker of pain in his eyes. He shook his head.

"What makes you think I'd know anything about that?"

He sounded cold and distant, as if the subject was something that should be strictly avoided. I wondered if I should tell him about the dream. Nah, he'd just think I'm crazy or something along those lines.

"Don't know. Just a feeling, I guess."

I shrugged. It was worth a try.

"By the way, Arthur, did you find Vash?"

"Yes, he said he'd be free tomorrow at ten in the morning. He wanted to meet you in the throne room."

"Okay, thank you."

I made a mental note to be there on time. Hmm, I should probably get up early tomorrow. I still had to do today's load of work.

…Tomorrow was certainly going to be a busy day.

"Say, Arthur, don't you think it's getting a little late?"

I yawned to get my point across and threw a glance out of the window. The sky was a deep purple colour by now. Arthur nodded.

"Yes, we should both go to bed now. We don't want today's morning to repeat itself."

Smiling, I stood up and held my hand out to him.

"Well then, let's."

He hesitated just a bit, before he took the offered hand and let himself be pulled up. The both of us then changed into our nightclothes and went to sleep.

I woke up the next morning at eight and spent an hour signing yesterday's papers. I read them carefully this time, but there was nothing interesting, mainly cities and towns asking for permission to build something like schools, libraries or the like.

After I was done with that, I sat down in the throne room, which was really nothing but a big, overly decorated hall with a very expensive chair in it, and waited, not having anything better to do at the moment. Arthur brought me a cup of coffee and then vanished somewhere.

It didn't take all that long for Lord Zwingly to arrive. He entered the hall without much drama and walked straight up to me, giving a brief greeting.

"Good day, your majesty."

"Good day to you, too, Lord Zwingli."

"I'm here to report our latest findings concerning the incident on Sunday."

I nodded at him to continue.

"We've been able to find the woman you've been speaking of and asked her what she saw. It appears we had been right. It were Creators that had attacked you that day."

Hmm, seemed logical. Of course Vash's nen wouldn't suspect them of carrying weapons. Because they hadn't. The knives and bows and guns were probably created right before the attack. It all fit.

So why did I still refuse to believe it?

"I see. What do you suggest?"

I didn't see any reason for my doubts, so I should just ignore them and go along with Lord Zwingli's plans for now. He probably knew best what to do. And if it really was the Creators…

…come to think of it, why did Arthur save me? Maybe it was just a small group of Creators that wanted me dead. But Arthur did get in trouble for saving my life, so maybe not.

Where was Arthur now, anyway? I hadn't seen him since he had brought me the cup of coffee. Strange. Normally he was always right by my side.

"I think we should further int-…Your majesty, are you not feeling well?"

"Huh?"

I hadn't even noticed the way I clutched my head in pain, but now that he said it, I really did have quite a headache. But I could've sworn I had been fine just five seconds ago!

"…I'm fine."

"You look exhausted. Maybe we should continue this conversation another time."

The headache was getting stronger. It felt as if something was hammering against the inside of my skull.

"N-No, really, I'm fine. We can-"

…

…

…everything was white. There was nothing but eternal white, stretching into infinity.

No, wait, there was something. A kitchen. And Arthur. Why did he look so…young?

Just like myself.

…I know this scene, don't I? It feels so farmiliar…

"Arthur?"

…Oh no!

"Yes?"

Oh god, please no!

"Tell me a story, Arthur!"

"Which one would you want to hear?"

Not again…

"The one about the moon people."

This couldn't be! This exact same dream…

"The one about the Creators? Don't you think this is too sad a story to be told at times like this? Today is your mother's birthday, after all."

"But I want to hear it!"

"Very well."

Arthur sat down on a chair and I did the same. Wasn't there a scene change last time? Maybe it really was a memory and I was starting to remember more of it. But what about that thing with my father? I hadn't been in that part, so that wasn't possible, was it?

"A long time ago, there were people with special abilities. They could make things appear out of thin air and also make them vanish again."

Oh, this was going to be interesting.

"Moon people. I mean Creators."

"Correct. Most people couldn't do what they could, so the Creators decided to use their talent to help those who needed it. But…"

Arthur's voice faded and everything changed. It was the same as last time.

My father was there again, yelling at Arthur and pushing him against the wall. The sound was a little clearer this time, but their voices were still ununderstandable.

Then came the scream and I was like petrified. I couldn't run away, couldn't close my eyes, couldn't cover my ears. All I wanted was to wake up.

Wake up. Wake up!

Wake up!

"Wake up! Wake up, Al, come on! Wake up!"

Slowly I opened my eyes. I had to blink a few times to make the room stop looking blurry. Matthew was leaning over me, looking at me with worry in his eyes.

"Alfred! Al! Is everything okay?"

I sat up, groaning quietly and nodded. How had I landed on the floor? Ah, whatever. It doesn't matter, anyway.

"I-I'm fine, don't worry."

My headache was still there, but I almost didn't feel it. My brother wrapped his arms around me and for a moment I thought the old Matthew was back, the way he was before all of this began.

"God, I'm so happy you're all right! Lord Zwingli said you just passed out without a reason. He went to get a doctor. Are you ill? Anyway, you should take it easy for the next few days. I already arranged for all of your appointments to be either moved to next week or cancelled."

"Thank you, Matt."

Both of us stood up and he took a respectful step back allowing me some space.

"Lord Zwingli should be back with the doctor any minute now."

I nodded.

"Good. Hey, Mattie? Do you, by any chance know where Arthur is?"

My brother raised an eyebrow and I could feel the temperature in the room suddenly dropping.

"Yes, he's in the gardens, working. Why?"

"I need to talk to him."

That dream…Arthur knew something about the rise of the Dreamers and he wasn't telling me. Doctor be damned, I was going to find out what that was!

With a quick 'be right back', I ran past Mattie and out of the room, ignoring his callings of my name. I wanted to get done with this as fast as possible, while the memory of the dream was still fresh.

My brother was right, Arthur was in the gardens, watering flowers. He wasn't alone, though. A Dreamer with shoulder-length brown hair and blue-green eyes stood beside him, trimming some bushes. I recognized the man as Toris, the gardener.

The two were chatting happily while working and Arthur even smiled. A real, genuine smile. That was unfair, how was Toris doing that? He never smiled at me like that! I wonder why.

"Hey, Arthur!"

He turned around to look at me and the smile fell from his face.

"…uh…y-your majesty?"

He made a quick bow and I frowned at him. Why did I have to remind him over and over again that I wanted to be called by my first name?

"Stop being so formal, Artie. I don't really like that. My name's Alfred."

He seemed to have recovered from the shock of seing me here and calmly nodded.

"I'm sorry…Alfred."

"Good. Um…there is something I need to talk to you about…again. I…um…"

Okay, how could I say this without sounding weird? 'I've been having strange dreams lately'? I was pretty sure that he was going to question my sanity when I said that. 'You're the man of my dreams?'

…uh, no.

"I think you have been lying to me."

Ah, yes, that worked, too.

"What?"

I just gestured for him to follow me back into the palace and Arthur didn't say anything else. The gardener quietly watched the two of us leave, then continued his work.

I took the Creator to the library this time, so I could show him what I had found in the books if I had to. We both sat down at one of the tables.

"What was it you wanted to talk about, your ma-...Alfred?"

"You remember how I asked you if you knew anything about the rise of the Dreamers?"

He threw a wary glance at me.

"…yes."

"You said you didn't know anything, but I'm not convinced that that is true."

"…"

Silence. Arthur just looked away without saying anything.

"Whyt do you know? Tell me!"

"…I…really don't know…anything."

"Oh come on, you and I both know that that is a lie."

"I…no, really, I don't…"

He sighed, unable to hold up his lie any longer. Must've been my glare or something.

"Fine, I'll admit it. I lied. So what're you going to do now ?"

"Uh…aren't you going to tell me what you know?"

He thought about it for a moment.

"…no."

"Huh?"

"No."

I blinked at him, dumbstruck.

"Why not?"

Arthur bit his lip, as if trying to force himself to keep his mouth shut and just shook his head in response to my question.

"Why won't you tell me? You told me once already, isn't that right? When I was six years old…"

He flinched at those words and looked at me as if I had just transformed into a colourful, talking pony with wings and stars on its butt. Weird.

"How do you know this? You shouldn't be able to…remember."

Ah, so it was a memory. Makes sense. I had forgotten pretty much everything concerning Arthur up until he saved my life. Maybe now that I noticed him again, the memories will start coming back to me. I just had to wait.

I wondered what made me forget, though. And that part of the dream, the one with my father, was still a mystery. But I could ask about that later. First things first.

"So you CAN tell me. Then why don't you?"

"Because I can't."

He sounded…I don't really want to say desperate, but that's kind of it.

"What's the problem? Can't put it into words?"

"No, you don't understand, Alfred. I know the words, but it is impossible for me to say them."

* * *

><p>AN: I've been depressed lately. And still am. I wrote this thing two lines per day and always got distracted while typing. And no, this is not supposed to be an excuse for making this chapter so crappy (Yes, it is, I hope you forgive me.).<p>

Anyway, I'm really lacking inspiration and motivation. If you could, maybe, give at least a little feedback? Constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

And no, that wasn't a My Little Pony reference there at all, nope.

Well then, if you need me I'll be at the nearest river, trying to drown myself.


	6. Part 5

Part 5 – Friendship, Trust, Offers

* * *

><p>Groaning in frustration, I slammed my head down onto the desk before me. I had been trying to solve this goddamn problem for the last two hours, but without success.<p>

It was nothing, really. One of the lesser district lords thought it wise to found a city or town or whatever at the border of his district. The neighbouring district lord thought that the town was being built on his land. Now the two lords were fighting over that little piece of ground.

God, the last thing I needed now was a war between the lesser districts of my kingdom. But somehow my brain just didn't want to come up with a solution, leaving me staring frustratedly at a blank piece of paper.

"Gah! I don't want this anymore! Why can't the people solve their problems themselves and leave me out of it? I'm not even responsible for this!"

"I think you should rest, y-…Alfred."

Arthur, who had been standing beside me the entire time, gently placed a hand on my back. I sighed.

"I can't think anymore…and I'm hungry."

He rolled his eyes and removed his hand.

"Would you like me to bring you something?"

I looked up at him.

"Yes, that'd be great. Think you can get me vanilla pudding with chocolate sauce? Please?"`

Hmm…pudding.

Arthur just raised an eyebrow without commenting, before he excused himself and left, hopefully to get some pudding.

It had been over a week since he had saved my life now. I still didn't know the true story behind the rise of the Dreamers. I had tried asking Arthur several times, but I never received an answer. I also had had that dream two more times since I collapsed in the throne room. Though I didn't find out anything new in the first part, the second part became a little clearer every time.

I was able to understand a few words now. It appeared that my father was accusing Arthur of telling me lies, whereas Arthur said something like that I deserved to know the truth. They were most likely talking about the first part of the dream, since I had the feeling that both parts were connected somehow.

I just didn't know what to believe anymore. It was my father against Arthur, two people I trusted. Of course I knew that what my father did to Arthur was wrong; nobody deserved such pain. But then I also didn't understand his reasons. Many words were still unclear and I still didn't know the whole story.

Besides, I really loved my father…at least that's what I always told myself. Come to think of it, I barely remember anything about him.

Damnit! Why does everything have to be so complicated?

The door opened, effectively interrupting my thoughts, and Arthur reentered the room, holding a tray with what looked like pudding and a cup of coffee. He placed the tray on the table in front of me and took a respectful step back, bowing slightly.

"Thanks for the pudding, Artie. And the coffee."

He looked as if he wanted to say something, but then just silently shook his head.

"It was nothing. You're welcome."

Smiling in bliss, I ate the pudding, throwing in a sip of coffee every once in a while. The Creator watched me the entire time, his green eyes filled with a strange kind of warmth, but also bitterness. After a while I couldn't take it anymore.

"What're you staring at?"

I didn't mean to sound so harsh, it just kind of slipped out. Arthur stared at me, looking as if I had just caught him breaking a law. He then quickly turned his gaze away, mumbling a quick apology. I just shrugged and resumed eating.

It wasn't long until the bowl was empty and my stomach was somewhat full. I pushed the tray aside, revealing the still empty piece of paper that had lain underneath, uncapped my pen and started writing. Arthur watched me silently again, before he decided to speak.

"You finally found a solution?"

"Yeah. Now that my brain works again."

He raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner and I explained.

"I'm going to let them build the town, then divide it by two and both districts get one half."

I grinned. He didn't.

"You are aware of the fact that, by doing that, you will make enemies out of both district lords?"

As if I cared. It was just what? Two out of 1000? 10 000? Okay, I admit it, I cared. But that didn't make my brain work any faster.

"I don't see you coming up with a better plan."

"You are the king, not me. It is not my place to decide such things."

Still grinning, I huffed and crossed my arms.

"Yeah, right. Look on the bright side, though. My brain didn't explode."

His next statement was mumbled so quietly that I almost didn't catch it. Almost.

"I can't see why that'd be such a big loss."

"Hey, I heard that! You realize I could have you hanged for saying that, right?"

Maybe I went a bit too far. Arthur's whole body stiffened and he clamped a hand over his mouth.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Relax, Arthur. I was only joking. I'd never hang you, you're my friend! Where's your sense of humour?"

He seemed to relax slightly, but was still eyeing me warily.

"Friend?"

"Yup, friend. We spend a lot of time together, so that makes us friends, doesn't it?"

Sighing, Arthur lowered his gaze. I could see the corners of his mouth twitching slightly, but it still wasn't a smile. Meh, that could've been better.

"You've got a strange sense of humour."

"You think?"

I leant back in my chair and watched him for a while, not sure if he referred to what I said about hanging him or us being friends.

"I'm still curious, though. How would you solve the problem? If you could, I mean."

He thought it over for a moment, then turned his burning green gaze to me.

"I'd copy whatever makes that place so ideal and place it somewhere more convenient."

"I can't do that."

Looking unimpressed, the Creator just shrugged.

"That's your problem. Besides, aren't you the king?"

I nodded. He was right, I just had to ask and others would do it for me. I sound a little spoiled now, don't I? Ah well, I probably am.

"Yeah, will you help me with that?"

"If you want me to."

We spend the next few hours staring at maps and writing down stuff that looked important, looking for a suitable relocation place for the mountain in question. Why would you want to build a town on a mountain, anyway? Stupid, but whatever…it was nice, working together like that, even though all my attempts at starting a conversation were unsuccessful and almost always ended with Arthur glaring at something.

After a while, I decided to give up and just enjoy the silence. I threw a glance at him, he was currently writing down some coordinates, when suddenly a thought popped into my head.

"It's Tuesday…"

I tried to make it look and sound like an unimportant side comment and watched his reaction closely. He visibly flinched, dropping his pen and cursing loudly, before quickly apologizing, picking up his pen and continuing to write, acting as if nothing had happened.

"It appears so. Why did you feel the need to bring that up?"

"No reason."

That was a lie. I still remembered the conversation between Arthur and that other Creator almost a week ago. 'Make sure to be there next Tuesday' was what the brown-haired man had said. Last week Arthur had tried to run away. Something was clearly going on here. Something I didn't know about.

How I hated not knowing!

The Creator glared again, at me this time. I wondered if he knew that I had heard the conversation. Probably. Why else would he be warning me not to stop him this time with a single glance? His eyes said it all.

I guess I just had to trust Arthur on this.

Both of us didn't say anything else after that. We just finished our notes and put the maps away.

The rest of the day went by rather quickly. Arthur and I didn't speak with each other any more than was necessary and the atmosphere between us became strained. I was currently sitting in my room on my bed, watching Arthur getting dressed for the night.

If he noticed my staring he didn't let it show.

It didn't take him long to change his clothes. He sat down on the bed beside me and watched me. I offered a smile and, finally, after so many moments of silence, he spoke.

"Why did you call me a friend earlier?"

"Huh?"

He sighed and stared at his hands, which he had folded neatly in his lap.

"A friend. Why did you call me that? Little over a week ago you didn't even remember I existed."

Ow, that hurt. He didn't have to remind me of that, I was feeling bad enough as it was.

"Don't you consider me a friend?"

He didn't respond. All he did was lay down on the bed, wrapping a blanket around himself and muttering a quiet goodnight. I didn't understand. Did I say anything to offend him?

Shrugging, I lay down beside him and ran a hand through his golden hair. I didn't know what possessed me to do that. It just felt…right, somehow. His hair was surprisingly soft. He opened his eyes and stared at me, confused.

"I'm expecting to see you here when I wake up in the morning."

I hoped he knew what I meant with that. Arthur looked a little lost for a moment, but then his confusion quickly morphed into understanding. Thank god.

"You will."

A smile made its way onto my face. Of course I was curious about where he was going, but I wanted him to trust me and in order to get him to do that, I had to let him go, and let him go alone.

"Good. Well then, goodnight."

He nodded, before turning around, so that he was facing away from me. A few minutes later I fell into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

When I woke up again the sun was already shining outside. Arthur was standing at the window, watching the gardens below, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Arthur…"

He turned to me and bowed, and I couldn't help but notice how messy he looked. His hair looked even unrulier than usual, some strands stuck to his sweaty forehead and he was dirty everywhere; I kind of pitied the white shirt. But there was this strange gleam in his eyes, like a dying fire coming back to life.

Just what had happened to him last night?

"…you look horrible."

He just rolled his eyes.

"Good morning to you, too, Alfred. And thank you."

"I didn't mean it as a compliment."

"I know."

Slowly, carefully, he walked over to me and sat down on the bed. Bringing all his dirt with him. Thanks a lot.

"Hey, you'll dirty the sheets!"

He huffed and shook his head. Then he was quiet for a while, just staring at some invisible spot on the wall. When he finally spoke it was quiet but sure.

"I couldn't care less about the sheets right now, Alfred. Listen closely, this is important."

Couldn't care less about the sheets, huh? How unlike him. This was surely going to be interesting.

"I'm listening."

"…I've been talking to my friends and…"

He seemed to think for a moment.

"…I'm going to meet with them again next week. You may come with me, if you like. But I have to warn you. We have a secret, and if that secret is too big for you, we'd have to…"

He hesitated. His eyes darkened and he avoided my gaze.

"You'd have to what?"

"…we'd have to kill you."

Oh my god, that's so cliché…wait, WHAT?

"Are you…serious?"

"Yes. You have a week to think it over, I suggest you do that carefully."

Nodding to himself, the Creator stood up again and brushed some dirt off his clothes with his hands. His frown deepened.

"I think I'm going to take a shower now. If you'll excuse me…"

And with that said he left. He left, just like that, without saying another word. And I was going to die next week. Brilliant! What a bright future! By the way, I'm being sarcastic.

…well, he did give me a choice, but…I just wanted to know what was going on so badly! Not going was not an option. Damn my endless curiosity!

Ah, well, whatever I was going to do in the end, I still had a week to decide.

Letting out a dramatic sigh, I let myself sink back into the pillows, wondering when the hell my life had started to be so complicated. Ah, yes. When I nearly got killed. How could I have forgotten.

After a short moment Arthur entered the room again, looking much cleaner than before and wearing fresh clothes. It was surprising how he could slip back into his quiet servant role so easily after…well, threatening to kill me and stuff, even though it wasn't really a threat, more like a warning, but that's exactly what he did.

He shoed me out of bed and neatly folded the blanket, while I quickly got dressed.

"So, what now?"

The Creator ignored my question and threw a glance out of the window, absentmindedly placing the folded blanket back on the bed. His gaze softened a little and he let out an almost inaudible sigh.

"Arthur?"

"Huh?"

"I asked you a question."

He turned to me, bowing his head apologetically.

"You did? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you."

"It's okay. Anyway, what now?"

He walked over to me and straightened out a few wrinkles in my coat.

"Hm…I suggest we start taking care of the problem we discussed yesterday?"

Of course, the building-a-town-on-the-district-border problem. I nearly forgot.

"You mean like finding Creators willing to help and stuff?"

Arthur shot me a dirty look and tsk'd. Not quite the reaction I had expected. Was it something I said?

"Finding Creators, yes."

"So…do we go to my brother and ask him? He's the one responsible for anything to do with your kind, after all."

He only shrugged, brushing some imaginary dirt off his clothes.

"If you say so. Fine with me."

"Okay then, let's go."

Just as I was reaching for the door handle, the door suddenly swung open and my brother Matthew stomped into the room. Without as much as saying 'Hello' or 'Good morning' he went straight for Arthur, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and ramming him into the nearest wall, hissing in anger.

"Found you, traitor!"

"Traitor?"

My expression was one of pure disbelief, as I watched the interaction between my brother and my friend. Matthew groaned dangerously.

"Yes, traitor! It was this man here!"

He turned his head, so that he was now looking at me. An anger I hadn't even known he was capable of shone in his eyes. And hate. Pure, raw hate. This wasn't my brother. This wasn't Matthew.

"He was the one responsible for the attack at the parade. It was him. Arthur Kirkland."

* * *

><p>AN: SURPRISE! I'm still alive…barely. Sorry for taking so long to update, there was a major writer's block blocking my muses. But I'm feeling much better now.<p>

Is it just me or does this chapter consist of only dialogue and a few filling lines? And I have the feeling that Alfred started acting like a jerk about halfway through…hmm…

These things keep getting shorter and shorter. Sorry again.

Also, pudding. Yes. :D


	7. Part 6

Part 6 – Accusations, Uncertainties, Memories

* * *

><p>"What?"<p>

I could just stare at the other two, my mouth hanging open. Arthur…the mastermind behind the attack at the parade? That…that couldn't be true! It just couldn't! It was impossible! Wasn't it?

"But…he saved my life!"

My brother turned back to face Arthur, who stared at him calmly, his eyes as hard and cold as stone.

"Yes, he did, didn't he. But that was all just part of your little plan, wasn't it, Arthur?"

What was Matthew implying? That Arthur was plotting something against me?

"What plan?"

"He's trying to win your trust, Alfred. He's planning on using you. On using all of us. So that the Creators can rise to power again. And when he doesn't need us anymore, he's going to either turn us slaves or kill us."

The Creator's eyes were now set on me, acidic green burning into my soul and I wondered. Could it really be true? No, I wouldn't believe this! But if it was…

"What makes you say that?"

"A few people we questioned about the incident told us that they saw Arthur talking to other Creators the day before the event. He said he wanted to restore the old order as it should have been; the Creators ruling over us. That the system had to fall."

No, that was a lie. Arthur couldn't…he wasn't like that! I refused to believe that!

"Is it true? Arthur, is what he is saying really true?"

Arthur shook his head, his eyes never leaving me.

"No."

One word. That was all I needed to know.

"You heard him, Matthew. What you're saying isn't true. Let him go!"

My voice was as cold as ice, but I stayed calm.

"But Alfred, that's exactly what he-"

"Let him go!"

It was an order, not a request.

"Don't you see that-"

"Now!"

My brother sighed in defeat and released Arthur, glaring at him with eyes full of hatred. He couldn't disobey a direct order from me, prince or not, and he knew that.

"You haven't heard the last of this. No matter what it takes, I'm going to bring you to justice. And if you dare hurt my brother, I'm going to personally see to it that you die a slow and painful death. Do you understand?"

Arthur nodded silently and straightened the collar of his shirt.

"I understand."

"Good."

Matthew spun around, wanting to storm out of the room, but was stopped by the sound of Arthur's voice.

"Good luck with proving me guilty, your highness. I thought you were different."

My brother kept his eyes trained on the door when he replied.

"That is strange. I used to think the same about you. About all of you."

Then he left. Now I was confused. What was that just now? And what did they mean by different?

"What the hell just happened?"

"I believe the prince just accused me of trying to kill you at the parade."

"That was a rhetorical question, Arthur."

"Ah, sorry."

I threw myself onto the neatly made bed and buried my face in a pillow. Suddenly I didn't want to leave my room anymore. Ever. I sighed.

"I wonder what's wrong with Mattie."

"What do you mean?"

"…don't tell me you haven't noticed. He's not…he's not usually like this. I wonder what got him so enraged."

Arthur sat down beside me and patted my back in a comforting manner. I instinctively leant away from the touch and Arthur took his hand away again. Why was that…was it because of what Matthew had said? No, I trusted Arthur.

…at least I thought I did. Now that I thought about it, I didn't really know anything about him except for the fact that he was a Creator who runs away every Tuesday and more or less threatened to kill me…hm, that doesn't sound so good. Maybe Matthew was right? Maybe everyone was right?

Why was I even trying to protect somebody who everyone thought was evil? Lord Zwingli, my brother…

My father.

Argh, what was I thinking? Doubting myself wouldn't bring me anywhere!

"He really was lying, right? It wasn't you, Arthur. It wasn't."

I was saying that only to convince myself, so I was surprised to hear the Creator actually replying.

"It wasn't, like I said before."

"Then why?"

I turned around, so that I could look at him, look into those glowing green eyes and search for some trace of a lie. There was none.

"Tell me why, Arthur! Why did Mattie say those things? And why didn't you say anything to defend yourself?"

"He's just worried about you, I guess. If you were the one who had nearly gotten killed, you would probably act the same way. As for the reason I didn't say anything, he wouldn't have listened to me, anyway, and I didn't want to complicate things further."

"That didn't really answer my question. And I would've listened to you."

That was what I did in the end, wasn't it? Arthur shook his head.

"Maybe, maybe not."

Sighing, I decided to stare at the ceiling. The white-ish pastels were calming. Or at least normally they were. Right now everything was too bright, too cheery, too…perfect. And perfect was far from the word I would use to describe my current situation.

"I don't know who to trust anymore. There's you…Mattie…"

And my father, but I had a feeling that mentioning him now would be a bad idea. Besides, he was dead, so there wasn't really any point in trusting him anymore.

"Who do you think you can trust? No, wait, who do you FEEL you can trust?"

"I…"

I let my gaze wander back to Arthur, who was looking at me with eyes that told me 'decide for yourself, either choice is fine with me', and shook my head.

"I want to trust you. I mean, sure, Matthew is family and all, but with you…there's something else and…hell, this is too confusing!"

"Alfred, look at me!"

He pried a hand away from my face and I opened my eyes. When had I closed them?

"Whatever you want to do is fine. But you must be sure about it. You must be sure that that's who you want to be. And I'm not talking about the prince and myself. Believe it or not, we're on the same side. I'm talking about your…"

He went quiet, then shook his head. Damn him to hell for speaking in riddles!

"My what? And what do you mean, 'on the same side'? You're confusing me even more!"

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you more. But I know people who can. I know I said you had a week to think it over carefully, but have you already decided whether or not you want to come with me next Tuesday?"

Ah, yes, there was that problem, too. Arthur said I'd have to die if his secret was to big for me, but I wanted to trust him, so it had to be okay. Besides, if a meeting with his friends could answer some of my questions, it was worth the risk.

"I…yes, I will. I mean, I do…uh, I want to."

I thought I saw him smile for a split second, but it might have been my imagination. Keep trying, Alfred. Keep trying.

"Why are you asking now?"

"I'm planning to take you with me today."

What…

"But today is Wednesday!"

"I know."

He shrugged.

"It'll be a surprise visit. Besides, after what just happened here, I doubt that I'd be able to take you with me next week. You'll understand when we get there."

Oh great, I hoped I would. If there was something I didn't need, it was more questions.

"If you say so…"

I resumed staring at the ceiling. So bright…

"You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take a day off."

That was probably the wisest idea I had come up with over the past few days. I took the crown, which had fallen off my head when I had jumped onto the bed and was now lying on the pillow beside me, and placed it on Arthur's head.

"Here, you can be king. Just don't do anything stupid."

I was met with an unbelieving stare.

"I couldn't. It's…just not right."

He reached for the crown in order to give it back, but I stopped him with a movement of my hand.

"Keep it on for now. That's an order. It makes you look…pretty."

"Pretty?"

"Yeah."

He looked at me like I was insane. Hey, it was true, though! He did look quite…attractive. For a man, that is. Wait, where were these thoughts coming from? There was much more important stuff for me to think about right now!

Arthur did as he was told and left the crown where it was.

We spent the day just chatting about various meaningless things and carefully avoided certain topics. There would be time for that later, so I hoped. A maid came looking for me, but I told her that I wouldn't be doing any work today and wanted to be left in peace and she left. Today's paperwork was just thrown onto the growing pile of stuff to do. That pile was getting rather big; I was taking a lot of days off lately.

When it slowly started to get dark, Arthur was getting sleepy and it was obvious that he had to force himself to stay awake, even though he tried to hide it. At least to me it was. His eyes lost their focus every now and then and I sometimes had to repeat my words three or four times for him to understand them once.

But that wasn't all too surprising, considering he had spent the last night god-knows-where, doing god-knows-what. It certainly looked like it involved lots of sweating and hard work.

"When are we leaving?"

I interrupted his speech about why feathers were the most evil thing in the world. It wasn't like I understood a thing he was saying, anyway. Who can blame me; he always forgot how his sentences started when he reached the middle, so he then didn't know how to end them. All he gave me were half sentences. It was amusing at first, but seriously, that isn't much, you know?

"Wha-? Oh…um…I always leave half past eleven, but I guess we can leave 30 minutes earlier today…"

I threw a glance at the clock hanging on the wall. We still had two hours till then.

"You should take a nap. There's still time and you look like you're having trouble keeping your eyes open."

He nodded in thanks, sighing in relief, and lay down beside me.

"Please wake me when it's time to go."

With that said, he almost immediately fell asleep. Brilliant. I had hoped I could get a few minutes of rest, too, but since I had to wake him, I guess not. He needed it more than me, anyway.

15 minutes passed…30 minutes passed…I was getting bored. There was nothing to do, so I started humming. Quietly, of course. I didn't want to wake Arthur, after all. Not yet.

After a while I ran out of songs to hum, so I settled for drawing circles into the pillows with my fingers instead. Damn, I needed some sleep! Objects started to lose their shape, everything looked much softer now. How was Arthur doing this every Tuesday?

The moment I thought my bed tried to eat me, I decided ten minutes of sleep couldn't hurt.

I was awoken again by someone shaking me. Whoever it was stopped when he noticed that I was awake. I opened my eyes and waited for them to get used to the darkness. It was Arthur. He whisper-yelled at me.

"You idiot! It's already past midnight! You were supposed to wake me!"

Oh god, so late already? Well done, Alfred…

"I'm sorry, I just wanted-…wait, did you just call me an idiot?"

"Get up and get dressed, we're leaving! And please hurry!"

I did as he told me to and five minutes later I was ready to go. The crown was left on the bedside table, where Arthur had put it before going to bed. He assured me that I wouldn't need it where we were going, which was probably true, but I still couldn't help but eye the shining ring of silver and gold warily before we exited my room.

"Keep close and try not to be seen.!"

I gave a nod in response and followed the Creator through the halls. We got to the kitchen without being spotted. Arthur quietly opened the window.

"We have to be more careful from here on. Ever since the parade more guards have been patrolling outside."

I didn't even get a chance to say something to that, Arthur was already out of the window. Sighing to myself, I jumped after him. It was chilly outside, a sign that summer was slowly coming to an end.

Carefully watching our surroundings with his green eyes, Arthur led me through the maze of pathways and plants that was the palace gardens. We had to hide from patrolling guards twice, but luckily the trees could easily cover us in their shadows.

It didn't take us long to reach the wrought iron fence that separated the palace grounds from the rest of the world. Time seemed to fly by so much faster when you dreaded what was to come. Hey, we're talking about my possible death here! I'm allowed to dread something like that!

"What now?"

I lightly touched the fence. The polished metal gleamed menacingly in what little light the moon provided.

"Do you still know how to climb?"

I smiled. When I was still a kid I used to come here and escape my teachers over this fence whenever their lessons got too boring, which was…well, most of the time, really. I was always out, exploring the world, while Mattie stayed in the palace to take notes that he then shared with me later on.

He was also the one that always did my homework. Not that I couldn't have done it myself, I was just too lazy.

But how would Arthur know about that? Hm…he had probably been there, too, and I just couldn't remember.

"You don't forget things like that."

"Well then, follow me."

He nimbly climbed up the fence and hopped off on the other side. Damn, he was good! I tried to do it the way he did, but god, was that hard. I was out of practice. But hey, at least I got onto the other side, even though I did it rather ungracefully.

He spared me the embarrassment and thankfully didn't comment. With his hand he motioned for me to follow him.

We were now entering the forest. I could remember playing here when I was little. I used to be quite an adventurous child. It always drove my parents crazy when I came home covered from head to toe in dirt. Of course they had more important things to worry about at the time, but that didn't stop them from yelling at me.

I guess, deep down, I haven't really changed at all.

"Hey, Arthur?"

"Yes?"

He didn't look at me while speaking, choosing to rather keep his eyes on the nonexistent path before us, which was probably a good idea. Even with our eyes used to the dark, it was very hard to see here, since the trees blocked out all the moonlight. He seemed to know where he was stepping better than I did, though. He wasn't the one tripping over every root we came across.

I was lucky that the chances of running into someone out here were little to none.

"Where are you taking me exactly?"

"You'll see in five minutes."

Five minutes…we had to be close. How long had we been walking now, anyway? 45 minutes? An hour?

The trees were getting less now, I could finally see sky again. There was a mountain in front of us, a gigantic rock, its sharp edges casting a scary looking shadow over the lands below. It looked kind of lonely, since it was the only mountain around.

"Is that it?"

The Creator didn't answer, didn't nod, he just started walking a little faster. I took that as a yes.

Two minutes later we had reached the foot of the mountain. Arthur led me to a place where several big boulders were leaning against the grey-brown wall of rock. It looked perfectly natural, but I couldn't rid myself of the feeling that someone had put them there.

"We're here."

I blinked once. Then twice.

"We are? There's nothing here!"

Instead of replying, Arthur just turned to look at one of the boulders, his eyes narrowing in concentration. Suddenly the boulder disappeared, as if it had never been there in the first place, revealing a tunnel that lay behind. A tunnel full of people. People in white shirts and black trousers.

Creators.

Okay. This was unexpected.

* * *

><p>AN: …that was fast. Um…sorry that this is so…I don't know. Did I rush this too much?<p>

There's not so much dialogue in here. Uh…yay, I guess.

Anyway, I wanted to thank you for all the feedback you gave me last chapter. I just hope I haven't disappointed any of you. I tend to do that a lot. Well…thanks. *gives out free hugs*

(To PinkFroop: You better review this chapter and have fun while doing it, or I won't give you hugs for a whole week! Okay, jk.)

Oh, and one more thing. Cliffhangersssssssssssssssss s~!

I'm going to bed now.


	8. Part 7

Part 7 – Talk, Test, Truth

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><p>This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. This was just a dream. There was no way this was real! I slapped myself to make sure that I-OUCH! Okay, forget what I just said. This was real.<p>

That didn't make it any less weird, though.

People were staring at me. And I didn't mean the 'look,-it's-our-super-awesome-king' kind of staring; I was used to that. It was more like the 'you-don't-belong-here' kind of staring. And I hated the 'you-don't-belong-here' kind of staring.

Arthur was currently speaking with a brown-haired man with glasses. They were trying to keep quiet, so I didn't understand anything they said, but they were still loud enough for me to hear the obvious displeasure in the brown-haired Creator's voice.

It didn't look like they would be talking to me anytime soon, so I decided to use the time I had to examine my surroundings. I was in a cave full of people, all of them Creators. After Arthur and I entered here, the entrance was blocked again, so there was no way out.

Several tunnels went into different directions from here. One of them lead back to where I came from, where the others would take me I didn't know.

The Creators here all seemed to be very busy. They were running around, carrying things like food, clothes, blankets and…oh my god, was that a gun?! I wondered if this place was as lively at day, too, or if it was a night-time occurrence only.

A little girl shyly tugged on the end of my coat.

"Excuse me, sir, why are you wearing so funny clothes?"

Funny. She had just called my clothes funny. I didn't know how to react to that. But I guess it's kind of logical, since all the other people here were dressed in Creator uniform.

"Ah, well, do you know what a-"

"Johanna! Come back here this instant! That man could be dangerous!"

A woman, probably the girls mother, came running towards us. She gently pulled the girl away from me and, with a last warning glance directed at me, vanished in one of the tunnels. I resisted the urge to glare at her back. That was kind of rude. I didn't do anything wrong. I think.

"Arthur, old friend! What're you doing here? I thought I'd never see you like this again when you started coming here on Tuesdays!"

A young man ran past me to the place where Arthur stood, still talking with that other Creator. His arms were full with what appeared to be very big, brown-ish feathers. He had silvery white hair and ghostly pale skin. Maybe he was sick, but he acted as if he was fine. The man walked up to Arthur and ruffled his hair, which earned him a soft punch in the shoulder in return.

The brown-haired Creator seemed even more upset now.

"Gilbert! You just interrupted an important conversation!"

"Yeah, yeah…whatever, princess."

Sighing, the man with the glasses turned away from the other two, at which the white-haired Creator immediately started his own conversation with Arthur. He rubbed his forehead as if he was trying to fight a headache.

"Whatever. We were done talking, anyway."

Glaring at the pale man and Arthur one last time, he approached me, sighing once again and brushing a few strands of brown hair that had fallen in front of his eyes behind his ear.

"Well then, your majesty, if you would be so kind as to follow me, please?"

The Creator turned away from me again and disappeared in one of the tunnels. I did as he asked me to and went after him. Where was he taking me? The fact that we were leaving Arthur behind was making me feel uneasy. I'd rather have him here with me, but he seemed to trust this brown-haired man, so I can, too. I hope.

Still, something about the person in front of me was bothering me. He walked kind of strange. Okay, maybe strange was not the right word for it, but he certainly didn't carry himself like a Creator, he reminded me more of a lord or something along those lines. But then this place wasn't exactly normal, anyway.

We rounded some corners and made a few turns, being passed by some people on the way, until we reached another big cavern. This one was much smaller than the last one I was in. There was a wooden table, round in shape, standing in the centre of the room with what looked like a map lying on top. Ten chairs were placed around the table, one occupied by a brown-haired woman who was writing a few things down on a piece of paper.

She looked up at us when she noticed us entering and her formerly concentrated expression immediately morphed into a gentle smile.

"Hello, Roderich. What brings you here? I thought you were busy working with Eduard? And who is this charming young man you brought with you?"

Hehe. She called me charming.

"Ah, it seems that Arthur decided to bring his friend a little earlier than planned."

"Oh, you must be the king, then. I've heard so much about you!"

She quickly stood up and ran over to me, bowing respectfully. The man, Roderich, cleared his throat.

"Elizaveta, not here…"

"Oh come on, the poor boy didn't do anything wrong. He's just like you were a few years ago."

Elizaveta crossed her arms and looked up at the other Creator in a scolding manner. Roderich shook his head.

"His ignorance is just as bad as if he would actively work against our cause. Don't compare me to him."

Their cause, huh? Arthur's cause…I didn't want to work against them, I wanted to help! Was this why he brought me here? This 'cause' was probably the secret Arthur was talking about.

Hey, I just remembered. I should probably feel insulted.

"Um, 'he' is standing right here, you know?"

Both Creators looked at me. The man was glaring at me in disapproval while the woman had an apologetic smile on her face.

"Oh, of course. We shouldn't talk about you like that while in your presence. Please accept our apologies."

Hm, how about not talking about me like that while not in my presence, either? I guess not…

"Hmpf…I guess it was pretty rude. I apologise."

Right in that moment three other people entered the cavern. I recognised two of them. One was Arthur, the other was the white-haired man from before, the one that had called Roderich 'princess'. I mentally snickered at the thought. Maybe I should pick up the habit? Okay, maybe I shouldn't, but the brown-haired Creator didn't like me, anyway.

The third man was someone I didn't know. He was young, had short blonde hair and grey-ish blue eyes. The glasses he wore made him look very intelligent.

I walked over to the three newcomers and stood beside Arthur, who was exchanging glances with the others in the cave. Finally someone I knew and in whose presence I felt comfortable in!

"Hey, Arthur. Where were you?"

"…were you afraid I'd run off without you?"

Yes, that was exactly what I was thinking. The exit was blocked by a giant boulder and without the powers of a Creator I had no way of getting out of here. But I guess I can trust Arthur after all.

"No, just curious."

"He's here now, so no need to worry."

The pale man went to sit down on one of the chairs. He leant back, his arms crossed, and watched us all with a bored expression.

"So, what did all of you need the awesome me for?"

"This is not about you, Gilbert, and you know it."

The blonde Creator with the glasses sat down, too, followed by Elizaveta, Arthur and Roderich. I felt expectant gazes on me.

"What're you waiting for? Take a seat!"

"Wha-? Oh, sure. Sorry."

I quickly did as I was told and sat down on one of the empty chairs. Arthur, who was seated beside me, looked around the room as if searching something.

"Where are the other five, anyway?"

The woman was the one to answer.

"Ivan only comes here on Fridays, Raivis on Sundays, Yao on Tuesdays and Toris on Thursdays and Saturdays."

Toris? Was the palace gardener part of this…thing, too? I thought he was a Dreamer…and that were only four persons. Didn't Arthur say five people were missing?

"Yes, yes. What about Emily?"

Hah, I was right.

"In bed. She has a terrible cold and we do not want to disturb her."

Emily…that was my mother's name. She died back when I was twelve. I can't recall the cause of her death, but I do remember my father committing suicide not long after. He jumped from the highest tower of the palace because he loved her so much.

"I see. I was hoping we'd have her with us for this, but I guess we have to do this without her. Alfred, may I introduce you to my friends? You've already met Roderich and Elizaveta."

Arthur nodded into the direction of the two brown-haired Creators I had mentally dubbed 'the lady and the grump'. I hummed in confirmation and he turned to the other two.

"This is Gilbert…"

"Hi."

The pale man waved and grinned.

"…and the other is Eduard."

"Very pleased to meet you."

I bowed my head at both of them before once more facing Arthur.

"Okay now, Artie. You brought me here for a reason, right? You said your friends could answer my questions-"

Roderich cut me off with a wave of his hand and spoke.

"Yes, we'll get to that later. Don't worry, your questions will all be answered, but first we'll have to make sure we can really trust you."

Oh great, just what I needed. The Creator threw a glance at Eduard, who then continued.

"Of course Arthur wouldn't have brought you here if he didn't trust you, but we don't know you the way he does. We just want to make sure. You understand that, don't you?"

I nodded.

"Of course I do."

"Right."

Elizaveta cleared her throat.

"We'll start asking you some questions then, alright? Gilbert, why don't you start?"

"Fine, if I have to…"

The man in question sighed heavily, before turning his burning red eyes onto me.

"You're the king, right? What does that mean to you? I mean, what do you think a great king must be? Blah, blah, something like that."

Wow, for a moment I thought he was actually being serious.

"Let's see…a good king should do what's best for his people. He shouldn't be selfish and put himself or only a small group of people above everyone else-"

"Define 'people'!"

I glared at Roderich for interrupting. How rude! Arthur and the others were watching closely now. Even Gilbert seemed to have found a sudden interest in the conversation.

"…how am I supposed to define that? My people…the Dreamers and Creators? Is that what you want to hear?"

Looks were passed through the cavern, but nobody answered me.

"I'm right, am I not? You want to know whether I care about Creators as much as I care about my own kind. I…honestly, I'd lie if I said that I did. It's not that I don't care about you, all Creators are part of my people as well."

Gilbert whispered a few words to the brown-haired girl beside him, before turning his attention back to me.

"Care to explain that last statement?"

"Well, I do care about Creators as people. But I never really thought about that Dreamer-Creator thing until a little while ago. So no, I don't care about Creators at all. What matters is who you are, not what you are. I'm sorry if that's not the way you people look at it…"

I remembered all the cold stares I received tonight, all because I was a Dreamer. I probably shouldn't have said all that, but I wanted to be honest with them. I wanted to be honest with Arthur. Besides, I was right.

"All right, enough of that."

I looked up at Roderich as he cleared his throat and asked the next question.

"Imagine there was something you firmly believed in. What would you do if there was an event that would suddenly challenge all your beliefs? For instance if you found out that what you thought was the absolute truth turns out to be nothing but a lie?"

What's up with all these weird questions? I kind of understood the first one, but this was just strange. There had to be a connection somewhere!

"It depends, I guess. If I know for sure that what I formerly believed in was a lie, I'd change my beliefs. If I don't, I depends on whether my decision would help people or not. If I suddenly found out that Arthur is plotting world domination I'd try to stop him, even if I wouldn't believe it. I certainly wouldn't reject a thought like that, even though my beliefs tell me otherwise."

Pointed glare from Arthur. That wasn't really the wisest thing to say, but hey, it did the trick. At least I hoped so.

Eduard was the next to speak.

"Why are you friends with Arthur?"

"Do I really need to answer that?"

"Yes."

"Fine…"

That was a tricky one. I never gave it much thought. Why did I like Arthur?

"…he's a nice person. Fun to be around, I guess. It certainly never gets boring. I kind of like his sarcastic side, too. It's amusing, somewhat, and it's shame he always tries to hide it. Did I already mention he saved my life?"

I threw a quick glance at Arthur who was staring at a wall in fake disinterest. Did I really need a reason to have a friend? Come to think of it, he and Matthew were my only friends. Sure, I knew a lot of people and sure, I was on friendly terms with even more, but never would I have called one of them a friend. I was their king, they were my people. It was as simple as that.

Gilbert sighed and looked at the other four Creators in the cave.

"Can we please cut this short here? I've heard enough. What do you think, princess?"

Roderich sent a violent glare into the direction of the white-haired man.

"I hate you so much."

"He's right though. We've done as much as we can. We should let him ask his questions now."

Ask my questions? Did that mean I had done everything right? Nobody said anything, so I figured I could just ask away.

That was great! Finally I would get my answers! There was just one problem. What should I ask first? Best to start with the most recent, then. There was a question that had been plaguing my mind ever since Arthur had removed that boulder at the entrance to this tunnel system.

"Who are you people? You're all Creators, right?"

To my surprise Roderich shook his head.

"No. I'm a Dreamer. As is Eduard."

"Eh? But…why are you two dressing so…"

I paused, trying to think of a word that would describe a Creator's uniform best.

"…plain?"

Yes, I think that word fit perfectly. Even my simpler shirts always had some kind of embroidery or other ornaments on them. Eduard was the one who answered my question.

"Don't let the clothes fool you. The two of us are as much Creators as you are, but we don't want to be seen as Dreamers here. Here we're all just humans."

That reminded me just a little of my first answer. Okay, next question.

"What exactly is 'here' and what are you doing?"

"'Here' is a mountain, duh."

Elizaveta silenced Gilbert with a deadly glare that made my respect for her grow very much, very suddenly, and decided to answer the question herself.

"We're…training. Yes, that's it. We're training our abilities as Creators. Using our abilities normally requires time and concentration. Some things, like influencing physics, are even completely impossible! Arthur wouldn't have been able to save your life like that if it wasn't for his training."

"What, so Arthur can just suddenly turn off gravity because he comes here every week?"

Eduard shook his head.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. But we can discuss that matter at another time, right now it's not important."

Gilbert decided rejoining the conversation was a good idea.

"Yeah, anyway, we learn fighting, too. Just in case there's going to be a war again, which probably will happen, because we're kind of planning a, you know, revolution and stuff."

A revolution? Was that what all this was about?

"Oh my…are you serious?"

Roderich nodded.

"Yes. I really don't like telling you all this, but we promised Arthur we'd answer all of your questions once you prove yourself to be trustworthy. What we want is equal rights for Creators and Dreamers. The sun and the moon shall unite once again. This slavery has to end."

He gestured to the brooch pinned to the front of my shirt. The Dream symbol; a golden sun representing the Dreamers, a silver moon representing the Creators and a blue sphere representing the world we live in, the Dream.

The Dreamer had said slavery…it wasn't like I didn't know Creators were being treated unfairly, the evidence was quite clear. But for the other Dreamer to use a word with such a strong meaning…was it really that bad? Did I treat Arthur like a slave during the years I don't remember? He had been a birthday present…had I really treated him like he was only my property?

Had I really been that ignorant my entire life?

Arthur seemed to sense my distress. He placed a hand comfortingly on my shoulder as if to say 'don't worry, It wasn't that bad'.

But there was something else bothering me. I suddenly felt a cold, uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. What my brother had said about the Creators wanting to rise to power, about how they'd enslave or kill all Dreamers…could it be true? Was this what he meant? I wasn't going to reject the idea, even though I really wanted to. That was my answer to the second question.

Worried, Elizaveta looked between Arthur and me.

"You look so pale, your majesty. Is something wrong? Are you worried we're trying to take over the world or anything?"

Bingo.

"If that's all, you shouldn't worry. Those are not our plans at all, even though a lot of people seem to think so. All we want is being treated like human beings, not like objects."

I nodded. That was understandable. Still, I couldn't completely rid myself of my uneasiness. I threw a short glance at Arthur and our gazes met for a few seconds. God, I should really stop worrying so much. I wanted to trust Arthur. No, I didn't just want to. I did trust him. Everything was going to be okay.

"That's…okay then, I guess. There's still one question I'd like to ask, though. If this whole revolution thing is about Creators, what are your reasons for helping out?"

I directed the question at the other two Dreamers in the cavern. Roderich smiled at me. No really, he smiled. At me. That's it, Alfred, get some sleep! Hey, I just got an idea. Roderich doesn't seem like the guy who always runs around with a smile on his face…if I could get him to smile, maybe I could do the same with Arthur…

"What matters is who you are, not what you are. Those were your words, weren't they?"

"Sure, but…oh…"

I could swear if my life was one of those old cartoon series you'd see a light bulb lighting up above my head right now. Eduard first looked at his brown-haired Dreamer counterpart, then at me, before he decided to continue with an explanation.

"Equality is something that should be desired by all of us, not just by those who would benefit from it. We could live a nice, peaceful little life as Dreamers, but we chose not to, because it's the right thing to do."

The right thing to do…Dreamers and Creators being treated equally…this went against everything my family stood for. For generations the kings and queens of my family…did they ever stand for justice? For fairness?

Roderich stood up and held a hand out to me.

"Will you help us?"

I thought about it for a moment. Would I sacrifice a part of my power to help these people? Would I sacrifice a part of my power to help Arthur? Because it's the right thing to do?

For generations the kings and queens of my family have treated Creators as their property. This was going to end right now!

Without saying another word I stood up as well, reaching for the offered hand. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Arthur with a smile on his face. It was a very tiny, very soft smile, but it was there. That moment I knew I wouldn't regret my decision.

This was the right thing to do, after all.

* * *

><p>AN: *punches air* Whoop, my word count breached the 3500! This is the longest chapter yet!<p>

Um…beware of lots of dialogue, pour attempts at humour, evil spelling mistakes and overall weirdness. I was listening to an…odd selection of music while typing this, so I don't know…about certain parts.

Anyway, sorry for the long wait. I had this chapter finished ages ago, but then I was in London for a week and somewhere in the Czech Republic for two weeks…you get the picture.

Ugh, I'm so tired, I want to die right now. I guess I'll just settle with going to bed, though.


	9. Part 8

Part 8 – Family, Allies, Enemies

* * *

><p>"And you have absolutely no idea where that traitor could be?"<p>

"As I said before, no."

I glared at my brother and received a glare in return. I had been up all night and was tired as hell, so, understandably, all I wanted was some damned sleep. But of course Matthew had to ruin it all by waltzing into my room early in the morning, early in the morning being two PM, and demanding to know where Arthur was.

"He probably ran off after you threatened him yesterday. The guy's clever enough to notice things like that."

I thought back to last night. Arthur had introduced me to his friends, a group of people who desired equal rights for Dreamers and Creators. I swore to help them to the best of my abilities and in return they would help answer all of my questions.

"Look, Alfred, you have to help me with this. Surely, you must know something!"

"I can't see why I should."

I could barely keep myself from telling Mattie the truth, all of it, but Arthur had made me promise not to say anything to anyone, even if I thought I could trust them. Especially my brother.

I just hoped Arthur was okay. He had decided to stay back at the secret hideout in the mountain because he was worried Matthew might try something. I guess his suspicions were correct…

"I'm trying to maintain the peace in this kingdom! What could you possibly gain from protecting people like Arthur?"

"Nothing. But it's the right thing to do."

My brother stared at me, shocked. Did I give too much away by saying that? I probably should've kept my mouth shut. Matthew seemed to shrink in his seat as he lowered his voice to almost a whisper, as if his next words were meant not for me, but more for himself.

"The right thing, you say? Yes, I used to think that, too. But that was before a bunch of crazy super-humans tried to murder my brother."

Sighing in defeat, Matthew stood up from the chair he was sitting on and straightened the wrinkles in his clothing.

"I'm done here. It seems nothing will be able to change your mind. At least I tried, so don't come crying to me when your so-called friends end up betraying you."

There were so many emotions present in his eyes at that moment. Frustration, anger and, above all else, sadness. For just a split second it was as if I could see past this mask he had been wearing for the last few weeks, see the real him, the way he was before all of this had started. Gentle, kind…and crying.

Without another word he turned around and stormed off, leaving me to think about what that was all about.

A sudden wave of guilt rushed over me, even though I had done nothing wrong. It wasn't as though I couldn't understand him, in a way. Just like Arthur had said, if our roles were reversed I would probably act the same way, if not even worse. Still, it would be nice if he at least tried to understand my point of view as well.

Sighing, I decided that I wasn't tired anymore and that I should get up and fill out some paperwork to get my mind off things. The pile of paper on my desk had grown quite a bit since I last saw it.

I sat down at my desk, pen in hand, and began to look through the pile, signing a few requests and reading some reports. It was mostly boring and unimportant stuff, as usual, but it did the job and I forgot about my worries temporarily.

90 minutes and half the pile later I needed a break. I stood up and left for the kitchen in order to get some coffee. As I walked down one of the many hallways my thoughts strayed back to Arthur and Matthew. I just couldn't get the Creator's words out of my head.

'Believe it or not, we're on the same side.' That's what he had said about my brother. But what did that mean? Matthew and Arthur on the same side…the first thing that came to my mind was that my brother could be part of the revolution.

But if that was the case, why would he try to place the blame for the parade incident on the Creators? Maybe he was with the resistance before the incident and then stopped trusting them, because…well, I guess his worry for me was blinding him. That would also explain his acting lately.

No, I quickly dismissed that thought. If my brother really used to have anything to do with the revolution in the past, why would Elizaveta have forbidden me to tell him about it? He would already know, anyway…and she specifically said: 'Don't tell anyone, not even your brother!'

Besides, the way things were now, if Matthew knew anything, he'd already have put a stop to it.

Deep in thought as I was, I nearly bumped into someone. Apologising quickly, I took a few steps back. The person, a Creator, was just about to walk away after a brief apology of his own, when I stopped him. He was familiar…

"Hey, you're Arthur's friend, right?"

Yes, I remembered. I had seen him talking to Arthur once. Yao was his name, if I was not mistaken.

He eyed me sharply, tugging a strand of brown hair, that had fallen into his eyes, behind his ear.

"Yes…?"

"What's your name?"

Just wanting to make sure…

"…Yao."

Ah, so I was right. Then he was probably also the Yao Arthur had mentioned yesterday. That meant he also played a part in all this. Still, I should keep my promise in mind and not tell him anything about the revolution, even though he probably already knew.

"Where is Arthur, if you do not mind my asking, your majesty?"

The question was asked with respect, but I didn't miss the hints of suspicion and distrust in the Creators voice. Great, how much should I tell him now? Arthur had stayed behind at the mountain in order to protect himself and the resistance, and I wasn't going to risk everything he and the others had worked for.

But I didn't want to leave his friend in the dark about this either.

"He's…safe."

"…safe?"

He appeared to be deep in thought for a moment, probably trying to decide whether I was telling the truth or not, before hesitantly nodding.

"I do not trust you. But I'm going to take your word for it."

He sighed and threw a short glance at his pocket watch.

"Was there anything else? I've got some work that really needs to get done."

Wow, he was kind of rude…definitely a part of the resistance. But he did have a point. I still had my own stack of paperwork. I didn't want to delay him any further, he had seemed to be in quite a rush before, so I quickly dismissed him.

Without any form of goodbye the Creator turned and ran off into the direction he had been going in earlier. Heh, I should probably get used to being treated with disrespect if I really was going to be working with these people. With Arthur…

Now where was I? Ah, yes, coffee.

I went to the kitchen and made myself some coffee, ignoring the chef's questioning glances in my direction. He was probably just surprised that I came here in person, since I normally always sent Arthur. After I got what I came for, I walked back to my room, a cup of steaming, brown liquid in hand.

Back in my room I placed the cup on my desk after taking a small sip and sat down in front of the pig pile of paperwork I had yet to fill out. I took the top-most piece of paper and quickly read the text on it, not really interested. I signed it and was just about to place it on the stack of filled-out papers…

…when I noticed the stack was no longer there.

I frowned. How strange…I clearly remembered putting it right here. I suddenly noticed another strange thing. The pile of unsigned papers seemed to have grown quite a bit in size. In fact, now that I thought about it, it looked the exact same way it had before I started working on it.

"…what…"

I read a few pages, this time paying close attention to the text. Blah blah…report on the education of teenagers in the kingdom…blah blah blah…invitation to a two-week visit in one of the greater districts…

No, there was no doubt. Those were the same papers I had already filled out before. Why were they unsigned then? Was this some kind of prank? Sighing, I signed the first six papers before folding and pocketing them, just to be sure. I really wasn't in the mood to do all of that again. Maybe later.

I stood up and walked over to the window. Somewhere out there was Arthur. I wondered if he was okay. Nah, I should stop worrying. The people there were his friends, they wouldn't hurt him. Besides, Arthur was fully able to take care of himself, should there ever be a problem.

Why was I worrying so much? It had been only half a day since I last saw him. I really missed him, though. Maybe even a little more than I should. I was so used to his company, even though I didn't really notice him for a long time, that being alone now just felt…weird.

Oh well, I just had to wait till next Tuesday to see him again. Though I wasn't sure I would find the way to the hideout on my own…maybe I could ask Yao to take me with him. But how would I do that without giving anything away? There was still that promise…

A knock on my door interrupted my thoughts. I turned around to face whoever was going to come in when the door opened and a servant entered the room. Judging by his cream-coloured shirt and black waistcoat he was obviously a Dreamer.

"Veh~, your majesty, a certain Lord Edelstein wishes to speak with you. He says it's important."

Ugh, seriously? Why couldn't people see that I had enough problems as it was, without having to take care of other peoples' problems as well? Who was this 'Lord Edelstein', anyway?

"…did he say what it is about?"

"No, just that it's urgent."

Inwardly groaning, I pushed myself away from the window. Better look what it was he wanted. If it really was that important, it could have something to do with Arthur. Or, at least, the event at the parade.

"Fine, I'll meet him in the throne room, just…give me a moment."

The servant bowed and skipped off happily. What a strange person…shaking my head, I threw a quick glance at the mirror, checking if I looked at least somewhat presentable, before leaving my room and heading for the throne room. This better be worth my time!

The servant was already waiting for me there when I arrived. He greeted me with a smile and opened the door for me.

"Shall I let the Lord in now?"

"Sure, let's get this over with."

I quickly walked over to the throne and sat down, waiting for the Lord to arrive. The doors swung open and, flanked by two guards, a man entered. Lord Edelstein, I presumed. He took a few steps into the room, so that I could get a good look at his face.

No. Freaking. Way!

Roderich, the Dreamer I had met last night, took a low bow.

"Good day your majesty. It is an honour to meet you. My name is Lord Roderich Edelstein and I am here to speak with you of important matters."

Now how was I supposed to react to that? What was he doing here? And why was he acting like we never met before. The Dreamer seemed to notice my confused stare and threw a quick glance at one of the guards. Oh, right…the guards.

"…the honour is all mine. What matters do you want to discuss?"

"How about we go somewhere less public first?"

He raised an eyebrow and the guards in the room eyed him suspiciously. Oh, right, the guards. If this really was about what I thought it was about, it was better not to have anybody around to eavesdrop. I could just send the guards outside, but that didn't really seem safe. We had to go to a less guarded room if we wanted to talk in peace.

"Sure."

I stood up and gestured to the door.

"Follow me, please."

Roderich hesitated for a moment, probably thinking about whether he could trust me on finding a safe enough place or not. Then he nodded and I started to lead the way to the library. It was the best place I could think of, since people rarely ever came there, with the exception of my brother, who was busy working in his room right now.

As soon as we set foot into the library and the door closed behind us I turned around to glare at Roderich.

"Is Arthur alright?"

The Dreamer started examining one of the many bookshelves.

"Arthur is perfectly alright, no need to worry."

"Then why are you here? What is it that you want to talk about."

"Believe me, if I had a choice, I'd be far away from this place right now. The others sent me here to answer some of your questions, since we didn't have much time to do that yesterday, and explain some things. Don't ask me why they picked me of all people."

"Ah…that's okay, then."

The Dreamer suddenly spun around to face me.

"So…is there anything in particular you want to know?"

I sat down at one of the tables, wondering what I should ask first.

"How did Arthur join the resistance?"

Roderich looked at me, thinking his words over carefully.

"His…former owner was a member of the resistance. She still is, actually. Maybe you'll meet her someday. She used to…work in the palace, but left in order to be able to work with us 24 hours a day."

"And she left Arthur behind?"

He nodded, pulling a small, green book from one of the shelves.

"Yes. We needed a contact on the inside."

"What about Yao? He's working in the palace. And Toris, the gardener? Didn't you mention him yesterday? He's also on the side of the revolution and working in the palace."

"Yes, but imagine any of our people was discovered. We'd still have a contact in the palace. And if we ever were found out and the Dreamers started looking for spies, they'd hopefully leave everyone else alone as soon as they found one. Do you understand?"

I nodded, frowning. I couldn't help but notice the way he excluded himself when using the word Dreamers. It was a little unsettling.

"I think so. You mean they wouldn't bother searching any further, because they'd think they already got what they were looking for?"

"Hopefully, yes."

He put the little book away again.

"Anything else?"

"Tell me more about Arthur's 'former owner'!"

"I'm sorry…she probably wouldn't want me telling you anything."

Roderich removed another book from its place on the shelf and admired the cover.

"Was that all?"

I looked up at the ceiling as I thought about what to ask next. I still knew next to nothing about what had happened to Arthur before the parade incident. And the way he seemed reluctant, no…unable to speak about the past…

Maybe now was the right time to ask about that.

"Arthur has been acting strange, I don't know if you know anything about it. I tried asking him something…nothing important, just a few historical things about the rise of the Dreamers. He started acting weird and said he couldn't tell me anything. Do you know what's wrong with him?"

It seemed I caught the other Dreamer off guard with my question. Cursing quietly, he picked the book he had dropped back up, before turning to me.

"Don't you think you should ask him personally about that?"

"I tried. Several times, even. The result was always the same. He wouldn't tell me anything. He always seems so scared when I try asking him about the past and I really want to help. But what am I supposed to do when I don't even know what the problem is?"

Roderich sighed, his eyes downcast for a moment, then lifted his gaze again, smiling sadly. Wow, I didn't know he was capable of such a facial expression. He put the book he was holding back where it belonged and sat down opposite from me.

"I…don't know the whole story, but I'll tell you what I know."

* * *

><p>AN: I'M SO SORRY! I didn't want this to take so long, believe me. It's just that school has been exceptionally hard lately and I'm studying like crazy all the time (though I still don't know if it works), so there hasn't been any time to write. Can you ever forgive me?<p>

There are many things I don't like about this chapter, but at least it's done. I hope I didn't disappoint you with it. By the way, if you should find any mistakes, no matter how small, please tell me.

Also, just in case you're interested, I posted a link to one of my gallery folders on DeviantArt (the one dedicated to Dreaming Divided art) on my profile.

Since I can't think of anything else to say right now I'll just end this here.


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